Evidence of meeting #33 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infrastructure.
A recording is available from Parliament.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Brian Pallister
I'm sure that would be a highlight for all of us, Mr. Dykstra.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
I wanted to ask Mr. Van Every one thing, just to follow up on a point that Mr. Pacetti made. Having worked, somewhat intimately, on the strategy in Ontario with respect to the tracks, we did see that not all eighteen tracks remained viable. For those still in operation, the initiative with the slots and the 5% revenue that was dedicated specifically to the purses at the racetracks have had a very positive outcome. In fact, over the last seven to eight to nine years, this has actually really helped the industry in Ontario.
I, too, am wondering why there wouldn't be, as in the rest of the country, an industry-led rejuvenation instead of an application to the federal government to get more engaged and to finance it. I ask for your comments.
6:25 p.m.
Chair, Horse Racing Tax Alliance of Canada
There is no question that industry is working on developing slots at racetracks across the country.
Half the profits go to the track itself to maintain it and improve the infrastructure. The other half is allocated to the purse structure.
Unfortunately, in both standardbred and thoroughbred racing, some amount of the purse money is actually going to horses bred in the United States and owned by Americans.
Their tax structure is so much more favourable than ours. They're able to take a greater risk, to breed better quality, to buy better horses. And they're coming into this country and taking away our revenue.
6:25 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Ms. Chisholm, I want to make a quick comment and then get your thoughts.
Part of the difficulty here is that we've made such a significant federal investment in affordable housing that everybody around the table wants to take a piece of the credit for it. I guess that's a good thing overall. At the end of the day, from your perspective, it's not about being partisan; it's about delivering housing.
It worries me that there's a continual undertone in your presentation of concern about what's not going to happen, or what's going to be cut. I don't need to read your comment back to you about the positive outcome that the 2006-07 budget had. This committee is about the opportunity to talk about the future and the potential investments we could make and how we can make them. It's about the present funding and the funding you may request in the future. It's not so much about coming to express fears surrounding what's not going to happen.
6:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
Yes, I think that's a very interesting and somewhat valid point. I'm not going to disagree with you.
But I guess we would feel more confident if we had the opportunity to meet with the minister responsible. We would really like to do this. It would help if we were able to make a presentation when the minister responsible was meeting with her provincial colleagues. And of course we would like to hear something back.
Maybe we're jumping the gun. We want to give positive messages to this government. They've made an investment in housing, but I want them to look at all the great things they can get out of it. These benefits go beyond what the provinces are looking for in the way of social policy. There are all kinds of economic imperatives to invest in housing.
6:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
That's exactly what we're trying to do. You may have come to the finance committee to talk a bit about that, but this committee isn't necessarily the best place to talk about some of these issues and the partnerships you want to make. Perhaps a better forum would be the ministries responsible for implementing the moneys that have been committed.
6:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
Yes, that's a point well made.
We would appreciate any assistance you could provide in helping us to expedite those meetings. We've kept up communications with Ed Komarnicki. He has been very helpful, but it's time to meet with the minister as well.
6:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
We've made a $1.4 billion commitment to affordable housing from a federal perspective. I've been asking provinces, territories, and municipalities across the country if they don't think it's time for them to come to the table and match this type of funding. This way we would be able to take this even closer to what we need to do.
6:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
I have no argument on that score.
6:30 p.m.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
I have a question for Chief Warden. I thought one of your recommendations looked quite interesting but wasn't described in much detail. This is recommendation 5, where you talk about the cost of equipping the entire first responder community nationwide with hand-held communication devices. The federal government would pay 50%, and this would be done in the next budget. I'm curious about what this is.
6:30 p.m.
Fire Chief, Wasaga Beach, Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs
It's actually a radio that we could use to communicate directly with each firefighter in an emergency. If something goes wrong at a scene, when you holler, “Mayday!”, everybody would get the message.
In today's fire service a lot of people don't hear the communications. They may be carrying a pager that doesn't work.
6:30 p.m.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
Would it include all first responders? If firefighters could communicate with other first responders, that would be good.
6:30 p.m.
Fire Chief, Wasaga Beach, Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs
That would be fantastic. If we could get an interoperable system in place in Canada, that would be tremendous, and we'd applaud you if you were to take that initiative and ensure we got it.
6:30 p.m.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
From my defence days, I remember that interoperability is important, but it's difficult to achieve.
6:30 p.m.
Fire Chief, Wasaga Beach, Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs
Yes, it is, but if everybody works together, I believe it can be achieved. It's now being achieved in some other countries in North America; they are starting to work towards it. It's time we also took up the challenge and make it happen.
6:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Brian Pallister
Thank you.
We'd like to see that happen. Some of us would like to see that happen here at this committee too.
6:30 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
6:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Brian Pallister
Thank you for all of your presentations.
Chief Warden, you mentioned you were a hockey coach. I think those of us who have been involved in the coaching fraternity know that a lot of coaches of hockey and other sports deserve the risk pay for dealing with the parents of some of those young people they are coaching.
We thank you for your work, and we thank you all very much for being here with us today. On behalf of the committee, we appreciate your reports.
6:30 p.m.
Fire Chief, Wasaga Beach, Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs
Thank you.