Evidence of meeting #52 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was care.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
So that would be nurses, doctors, hospital administrations? It would be an all-inclusive group?
9:45 a.m.
President, Canadian Nurses Association
That's correct. It would be pan-Canadian and collaborative. We're not going to solve this one profession at a time.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
When the health accord was signed a few years ago, or whenever, did we get push-back from the provinces? They're the deliverers of health care. We sign the cheque every year to the provinces, except in public health. Are there not concerns at the provincial level that we're interfering in their planning? I think you had this in your presentation.
9:50 a.m.
President, Canadian Nurses Association
We always have that federal-provincial tension. The federal government is the fifth largest employer of health care workers in this country, and a lot of those health care workers are in rural and remote areas. So there is a great opportunity to show leadership here that can be applied across the country.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and my thanks to all the presenters.
I'm going to focus on three things very quickly. First, I don't think many Manitobans realize what an advantage our airport is—a 24-hour international airport in the heart of the continent. The idea that we can build a great inland port, an intermodal port, with a trade zone to value-add materials and then distribute products throughout the rest of North America is going to play a huge role in the economic development of the province.
I would like the airport authority to answer some of the questions that John put to you about the nature of the economic trade zone. It's not supposed to be a tax-free trade zone so much as a...[Technical difficulty--Editor]
9:50 a.m.
Senior Vice-President of Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, Winnipeg Airports Authority Inc.
With respect to the airport, we're quite anxious to get this up and running. It is a huge economic driver. The foreign trade zone would allow development to happen much faster. We need the foreign trade zone program to be a true foreign trade zone. Right now, two programs exist. But they haven't been taken up by industry, so that would say to an outsider that they aren't effective. This is evident in Minister Day's creation of a task force to look at these zones; they obviously need some improvement. But you can't do whatever you want in those zones. There will still be tax rules and customs rules. That's part of the task force's agenda.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
These have been some of the criticisms of the ones that have popped up around the world, as if labour rights wouldn't apply within those zones, environmental laws.... They were truly “do whatever you want“ free trade zones. I don't think anybody is contemplating that in this province.
9:50 a.m.
Senior Vice-President of Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, Winnipeg Airports Authority Inc.
That's not my understanding here.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Donald, on the EI, thank you for raising some of those issues. In the mid-1990s, when the federal government of the day gutted the EI program, it cost $20 million a year, in my riding alone, of federal money that used to flow in that no longer came. All those people were then pushed onto the welfare rolls. That was just Winnipeg Centre. The same was true in Judy's riding in Winnipeg North--another $28 million per year. That's like losing two Palliser furnitures right out of the heart of your riding, in that one neighbourhood. So you're wise, I think, to target EI. Plus the federal government shouldn't scream too much; it's not their money. They don't put a penny into the EI program; it's simply an insurance program.
There are statistics I want to ask you about. The number we have used from the social planning council in my riding--I'd ask you to verify this--is that 52% of all the children live below the poverty line in my riding of Winnipeg Centre. In half of those families, at least one of the parents works full time, so we have a child poverty crisis here.
The question I throw to you is, briefly, has the Social Planning Council studied other countries, western developed nations, and looked at their incidence of child poverty, whether it's western Europe or the Scandinavian countries?
9:50 a.m.
Senior Associate, Social Planning Council of Winnipeg
I don't have those figures in front of me right now, Mr. Martin, so I apologize. I don't have any comparative basis, but it is quite true that your riding, of course, is very high in poverty.
We will be releasing a report on child and family poverty in November. It will show a significant increase, and it will show a significant number of Manitoba children still living in poverty. Again, if I may borrow from my experience of Winnipeg Harvest, Winnipeg Harvest feeds 40,000 Manitobans a month. Almost half of them are children.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Thank you.
The last point, if I have time, concerns the nurses. Given that we're going into a period of massive deficits--that's the reality, meritorious and virtuous as all of the proposals are--there's going to have to be a business case for everything we ask for, let's face it. We're going to have to show where there's an economic benefit to these proposals. With nurses, the advanced role of nurses in the health care system, or expanding the role the nurses can play in the health care system, has the research to date shown that there's a material cost benefit to expanding and enhancing what tasks and duties nurses play within our system?
9:55 a.m.
President, Canadian Nurses Association
Thank you for that question.
Yes, in terms of nursing research, we have been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of having nurse practitioners working, not only in primary care settings but also within institutions, and their ability to be able to facilitate keeping individuals out of hospitals and in their homes and managing their chronic conditions. One of the things that we would be looking for, in terms of advanced practice for nurses who have that designation from their college or their association, would be their ability to prescribe. We need to see some legislative changes in order for them to be able to prescribe limited narcotics and other drugs, so we are working on that as well. If you open that gateway, we would be able to more efficiently and effectively provide health care to Canadians.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
To the University of Manitoba, I was very interested to hear you say there was an interest in expanding the grain research. The rest of the country should know that we already are a centre of excellence to some degree with the Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian Grain Commission, the Canadian Grain Institute, all based in a cluster in a campus in downtown Winnipeg.
Would you see this complementing and expanding our international role as an international centre of excellence for the research to expand our agricultural base?
October 20th, 2009 / 9:55 a.m.
President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Manitoba
Most definitely, and that's been the motivation I think from the inception of the conversations, which include local industry and the existing federal labs that are here, and the university's research thrust in safe and sustainable food and bioproducts. This already is an area with considerable momentum. In fact, Dr. Naimark, in a study, recommended some rearrangement of responsibilities in this area more generally across the country, not only in grains but in these kinds of collaborative things, with the intention for this to be one of the pilot projects.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
So you could argue that you get a better bang for your buck in grain research invested when it complements the good work that's already happening in this area.
9:55 a.m.
President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Manitoba
Right, and I think the expectation on both sides, both in government and in the larger community, is that there would be quite a bit of leverage from this. There has been strong support for the project; we're just asking for it to be actually completed.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the witnesses for appearing. It's always interesting to have a panel from different spectrums of the bar. But it's tough for us to ask questions when we have limited time.
I'm just going to ask a quick question to the airport authority. In the press release that was announced, you state there are two pilot projects...or three? One is going to be here in Winnipeg. Where would the other one be?
