Evidence of meeting #41 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was halifax.
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Brian Pallister
Thank you very much.
Now we continue with Mr. Pacetti, for four minutes—no, three.
October 24th, 2006 / 2:05 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
That's the same treatment I get all the time. That's what happens when you're shorter than the chair, I guess.
Thank you again to all the presenters. It's tough to ask questions, but the submissions are interesting. Some of them, obviously, don't correspond to what we're looking for, but this is a finance committee, and we have some decisions to make. Nothing is easy.
I'm just going to try to ask a couple of quick questions. The first one is for Mr. McKelvie, from the restaurants association.
Recommendation number three, if you could clarify it a little bit, states that you recommend that the government revise the immigration point system to remove barriers and restrictions for entry-level workers willing to work in Canada. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean you're willing to lower the barrier so that anybody can come in? Are we looking to lower the barrier based on education and skill level, when everybody else is asking us to bring in more skilled people?
2:10 p.m.
Chairman, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
I think the answer to the question is that we are asking the immigration department—we met with them two weeks ago in Toronto—to address this situation and try to loosen up the point system, allow more temporary foreign workers into Canada for longer periods of time—
2:10 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
But when you lower the point system, you're asking for people less qualified, maybe less educated, or with language barriers. Is there something specific—
2:10 p.m.
Chairman, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
In certain positions we need just to open it up so that there are more skilled workers being allowed to come into Canada, at a quicker pace.
2:10 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Do you have any idea how many more you would like to see come in a at lower skill level or less educated?
2:10 p.m.
Chairman, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
I think I mentioned earlier that by the year 2025 we're looking at a shortfall of 330,000 workers in our industry.
2:10 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I missed that part. That's great. Thanks.
This is for Spirits Canada, Mr. Westcott. This committee conducted some hearings based on the brewers and the wine people. I don't think there was much testimony from the spirits people.
Most of the products used to produce the spirits are not coming 100% directly from Canada, and I think some of the exemptions we had requested were for products that were 100% homegrown. I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself properly, but I think that was one of the criteria that were used in the last budget to lower the excise tax.
Am I off-base? I'm getting old, and it was about three years ago that we did the study.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Brian Pallister
Unfortunately, Mr. Westcott, you'll only have about 15 seconds to answer that question. Proceed.
2:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Spirits Canada / Association of Canadian Distillers
Very many spirits products produced in Canada are made from 100% Canadian cereals and grains--corn, rye, and wheat.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Brian Pallister
Thank you, sir.
I'd urge all committee members to reduce their preambles in order to maximize the response time.
Monsieur Paquette, three minutes.
2:10 p.m.
Bloc
Pierre Paquette Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mrs Lord, there's a whole series of recommendations at the end of your brief. The last one calls on the government to restore fully the funding of programs whose budgets have been cut by the Conservative government a few weeks ago. We're talking of about 750 million dollars.
You've referred to literacy, public assistance, smoking cessation campaigns in First Nations, the voluntary and community sector, and education and training programs, but you've never referred to the cuts made to the financial assistance program to social economy enterprises, even though it seems to me to be a promising program. Indeed, it's a program that can be helpful when the private sector doesn't want to take its responsibilities and when the public sector might not be the best player. That has been confirmed, for example, in the case of the Quebec childcare network. Social economy has an important role to play.
Did you forget to mention it or was it implicit?
2:10 p.m.
Co-Chair, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, Consortium of Women's Organizations of Nova Scotia
We chose just a few to mention here, but yes, the social economy program is obviously of concern to us and also to Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia has the kind of culture and history that are more amenable to that kind of approach to economic development. There were, I know, some very interesting and promising projects developing in Nova Scotia that will likely be affected by these cuts.
Social economy is really based on the notion of social inclusion, which means that people who go into the social economy field with that in mind are going to be more likely to integrate low-income people and so on into their enterprises.
2:10 p.m.
Bloc
Pierre Paquette Bloc Joliette, QC
Mrs Lord and Mr. Arseneau, you've referred to social housing. I'd like to know what the situation is in social housing in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and what are the government policies.
Do they meet your expectations? I'd like to have an overview of the situation.
2:15 p.m.
Executive Director, New Brunswick Non-Profit Housing Association
In New Brunswick, the need for affordable social housing is still the same. There are about 35,000 families who need social housing. There's a waiting list of about 8,000 people who would like to have affordable housing immediately. As a matter of fact, the list is not even complete because many people who've been waiting for a long time have stopped asking.
The Government should provide financial help and, if possible, more housing subsidies. Whether financial assistance is federal or provincial, the point is that more affordable housing has to be made accessible to people in need.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you. I'll try to be as brief as possible.
Mr. Westcott, can I have a clarification on something you provided us with here? In the chart that lists annual beverage alcohol exports, spirits are number one at $407 million. That's in actual dollars, not per litre or per ounce of alcohol or anything like that, correct?
2:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Spirits Canada / Association of Canadian Distillers
That's correct.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Is that driven by the fact that it's a higher-end product, with a value that's higher than for, say, a bottle of wine?
2:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Spirits Canada / Association of Canadian Distillers
No. The fact is that Canadian spirits producers are significant exporters. About 72% or 74% of what we make leaves the country. We are a long-time export-driven business. Our largest market is the United States. Canadian whisky is the largest-selling whisky in the United States--scotch, bourbon, and Irish combined. We have been extremely successful around the world in selling our products against the scotch industry, the Irish, the bourbon.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
I appreciate that.
Just to summarize, you'd like it converted to a single unit that's compared across all sectors that sell those beverages.
2:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Spirits Canada / Association of Canadian Distillers
Well, it's the alcohol. Drinks can contain the same amount of alcohol, yet we have vastly different tax rates, which translate into margins, so some people come into the marketplace with a lot more money in their jeans to drive the business forward than other people.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Right.
I have one question for Ms. Bona. When we were out west, we got a comment from a real estate organization about the possibility of changing the guidelines on RRSPs in terms of allowing people to get into that house sooner, because house prices have gone up, but the amount you can withdraw or whatever hasn't changed.
Has your organization looked at that issue at all, and would you care to comment on it?
2:15 p.m.
Representative, Nova Scotia Home Builders' Association
Nationally they have reviewed that scenario. While it does offer a certain level to those who can afford RRSPs, it doesn't necessarily address the main issue, which is affordable housing--or a more affordable housing type--across the country.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
I have one other quick question.
I come from the municipal world. In Alberta, for example, they have what they still call “lot levies”. I come from Ontario, which has development charges. Here you call it something slightly different.
Does it cover soft services, or all hard services? When I say “soft services”, that's like city hall and marinas and all those things.
It's all hard? I'm getting the nods from behind you. Is that all right? Is it all hard? Okay, thank you. I just wanted to clarify that. That's fine.
Do I still have a little bit of time?