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.
5:40 p.m.
President, Canadian Health Food Association
There are some other problems, and we are working hard with the department to resolve many of those. But certainly one of the primary issues is ongoing funding for that department.
5:40 p.m.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Yakabuski, I have one question for you, if I may. I certainly agree with you that competitive taxation is extremely important. In order to become more competitive, would you have a view as to whether lower income tax or lower GST is the better way to go?
5:40 p.m.
Vice-President, Government Relations, Ottawa and General Manager, Insurance Bureau of Canada
Well, I talked to you about the combined federal and provincial corporate income tax rates, which are higher in Canada than most of the OECD countries, so there's no doubt we need to be competitive on that level. Insurance, as you know, is a GST-exempt product, which means, of course, that insurance companies don't charge GST—but neither are they able to gain GST tax credits, which has always been a bit of an anomaly in the system.
Having said that, I think it is very, very important. After all, we're talking about people from abroad investing in Canada. They're going to be taking a look at the combined corporate income tax rates very closely; it's something we cannot ignore.
5:40 p.m.
Conservative
5:40 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Thank you very much.
My first question is addressed to Ms. Chisholm. In your brief, you talk about renewing the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program. Some homeowners in my riding have told me that there is still funding available under the current program, but that Ottawa has frozen the funding. As a result, not all of the funds are being transferred to the provinces -- at least not in my riding in Quebec.
Are you aware of that? Do you know whether there is any money remaining under the current program? Have members of your association or people you know told you that the money would be frozen, when in fact it is supposed to be available?
5:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
There is money left in the current program, the affordable housing initiative, of about $320 million, but that program was divvied up among the provinces, as you know, and Quebec was very anxious to utilize its funds and did so the most quickly. So that funding—I think for Quebec, at least—is completely used up; they were very quick to use that funding.
But there has been a new announcement of trust funds that will soon be available to Quebec. I don't know if there's anything to prevent Quebec from going forward with those, unless it doesn't have its plan yet, but I would expect the provincial government is ready to go forward and seek the trust funds released in September.
Finally, the RRAP program, the residential rehabilitation assistance program, is still available this year. It has been helpful to over 20,000 units of housing a year, which is a lot, but it has to be renewed next year by March. We're hoping it will get renewed, which will be helpful for the kind of renovation work you have to do in your riding.
5:45 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
The Bloc Québécois has tabled a bill in the House of Commons that deals with affordable social housing. That bill called for surpluses built up at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to be invested in social housing, through a reserve of $1 billion. I believe there are currently annual surpluses of $100 million; I can't remember the exact amount. We are proposing that beyond that, any surpluses that are accumulating and are not controlled by Parliament for the time being be invested in affordable social housing.
Would you recommend that members of Parliament support such a bill?
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
Absolutely. Our membership consists of members from across the country who manage social housing. We also have about twenty or thirty of Canada's major cities as members, and we have all the provinces and territories, except for Prince Edward Island and Ontario, as members.
Whenever we come up with a position, it has to be mediated carefully, but all of our members support the notion that the legacy savings the member is referring to ought to be kept in the social housing sector. The cut that CMHC recently sustained will start to erode those savings, but we very much support holding the savings in the sector
If a method was set up with some levers so that we could re-invest in affordable housing, we could probably do much better if groups had an incentive to provide better housing. Yes, our members support that.
5:45 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
In your recommendations, you talk about establishing an energy efficiency program aimed at low- and middle-income households.
But was there not already a program in place -- namely the EnerGuide program -- which had precisely that objective and which benefited low- and medium-income Canadians? Did people actually benefit from it? Was the program a success? Could we create another, similar program? We could give it another name, if that's what the government wanted. Do you think we need this type of program?
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
Yes, absolutely. We've been part of supporting an energy savings program for low-income households for two reasons.
One is that it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and that's important to all of us. But secondly, it really helps low-income families over the longer term, whether they live in market rental housing, in housing that they own, or in social housing. If you do repairs to the housing to make it more efficient, this is something that will create savings for them well into the future. We think it's important.
The EnerGuide program that I think you're referring to was cancelled, but I understand a new program is in the works. I think there could be improvements beyond the old program.
We're very much available to work with government to make sure the program will be as effective as possible for low-income families.
5:45 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Finally, I would like to talk about the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative, or SCPI, which is intended to help the homeless.
I am a little surprised that, as a society, we would still be wondering whether this sort of program should be renewed. In my riding in the Montreal region -- we have often talked about this at the Montreal caucus of the Bloc Québécois -- there are many, striking examples of the results of this program.
Is it only in my riding or in Montreal that these programs are working well? And if that is not true, and it is working well all across the country, why has this program not been renewed? Is it inefficient? Are there convincing results outside of my riding?
5:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
The SCPI program that the member refers to is one of the first housing programs we had that really engaged all orders of government. Cities had to get involved, provinces had to get involved, and the federal government was involved.
It's not only all orders of government. It goes across different sectors. There are housing, health, and local employment incentives, and a whole variety of community partners come to the table to work on it. It certainly started to make some progress in building a framework, in getting all of the right players at the table, and in doing it effectively.
I think there's lots of support for it to continue. Hopefully, we'll hear soon.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Brian Pallister
Thank you very much.
We'll continue now with Mr. Turner. You have seven minutes, sir.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Garth Turner Conservative Halton, ON
Sharon Chisholm, we'll continue to pick on you for a minute. On the most recent federal budget, can you encapsulate for us very quickly what it did in terms of the area of social housing?
5:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
The recent news was that the money was released for the trust funds in September. But the budget actually cut some funds from CMHC. That will have an impact.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
5:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
It was $1.4 billion.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Garth Turner Conservative Halton, ON
Do you remember what you said at the time about the $1.4 billion?
5:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
Maybe you could remind me.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Garth Turner Conservative Halton, ON
On budget day you said, “This is the announcement we have been waiting for.”
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Garth Turner Conservative Halton, ON
And I believe you said today that the federal government can't wash its hands in this area.
5:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
Yes, and I'm not--
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Garth Turner Conservative Halton, ON
You can't suck and blow at the same time here. So is this the announcement you've been waiting for, or are we washing our hands? What's it going to be?
5:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
It's absolutely the announcement we've been waiting for. It's a very welcome announcement. It took a while for it to be released, and we were very glad to see that the money was released in September when the auditor closed the books.
Right now we're reacting to making sure we continue with the SCPI program and the RRAP program, rather than leaving these things behind.