Finance Committee on Oct. 20th, 2009

[Pat Wege]

We can do whatever it takes.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

Turning to Athabasca University, Ms. Rooijen, your brief was slightly different from those of all the other universities, because you were specific in talking about the knowledge industry and specific in asking for ICT, information communication technology.

Is that going to benefit your university directly? Do you have a concentration in that?

[Lori Van Rooijen]

Absolutely, it will, because we are an online university; we're an open university. Being able to reach out across Canada and provide an ICT framework will help.

But it goes beyond our university, and that's what's important about the whole vision for the nation. If you just look at our preparedness for an ICT vision to be implemented, we rank pretty low when it comes to things such as digital content availability or bandwidth or infrastructure development. Other things, like—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

There's a whole list of them; I agree with you.

[Lori Van Rooijen]

It goes beyond our university, but yes, ultimately, we would benefit from it. We are a different university, which is why you see something completely different in our submission.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

We saw yesterday in Weyburn that they were able to maintain their workforce but were able to increase their capacity because of technology. There's technology being used in all sectors. So I can't disagree.

Thank you for your presentation.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you, Mr. Pacetti.

We'll go to Mr. Wallace, please.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank you for coming today to talk to us.

Mr. Bell—Your Worship—concerning the transit issue you brought forward.... I am from Burlington, Ontario, which is just outside Toronto. We have what is called the Go Train out our way, and in addition the municipality has its own transit system.

What does Selkirk have? I want to understand. Mr. Chong and I have been working to convince the government on a national strategy overall, working with our friends from FCM. Part of the argument, to be frank with you, is that it's really a “big urban” issue, but we think it's wider than that.

What are Selkirk's transit issues? Can you tell me about the community itself?

[David Bell]

Currently, Selkirk doesn't have transit.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

You don't have it at all?

[David Bell]

We have something called a “handy transit”, which is really for more senior people, to get them to appointments, to help them maintain their independence in their own homes.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

How big is Selkirk, if you don't mind my asking?

[David Bell]

It has approximately 10,000 people. We're working very diligently and actually have money put aside, from gas tax investment, to get some rolling stock happening as quickly as the next budget.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Just so that you know, and maybe you do already, the federal government south of the border, in the United States, has had a federal transit plan since 1963—which was a great year, by the way—

[An hon. member]

Is that when you were born?

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Yes.

There's a little bit of operating money in it, but it's not really for operating; it's for capital.

Is that the kind of support you'd be looking for: on the capital side, not the operating side?

[David Bell]

You know, we're looking for support in any way we can get it. We really see this as striking so many chords, in terms of affordability for individuals to be able to get around. We see it as being a big proponent of the environment. Even with vehicle manufacturers offering reduced prices on vehicles, there are still a lot of people who simply cannot afford vehicles. There are a lot of people who downsized their homes and are basically getting rid of one or both of their vehicles. We really see public transportation for Selkirk as, again, a broad-based thing. It's good for the environment; it's good for the economy; it's good in terms of operation dollars, absolutely. If there's something that can be brought forward for us to offset those operating costs, because we all know it's a losing proposition, but it's nonetheless necessary....

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I want to be clear with you that from our perspective it is a capital issue, that others will have to pay the operating side if we can make it happen. I just wanted to let you know that.

To be clear, we have seen the Canadian Federation of Students'...your proposal today, or your request, is just more specifically to do with what's happening in Manitoba; you still don't have any issues with the overall plan that your organization that you belong to has presented at previous meetings. Is that correct?

[David Jacks]

We're just bringing this to the Manitoba context so that you can see.... The Canadian Federation of Students national office submitted a brief as well, so we're bringing the perspective from the Manitoba component and where we fit in with the overall—

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I'm going to follow up on Massimo a little bit, and it's just that there's really two sets of.... There's the health transfer and the social service transfer. I'm doing this off the top of my head. It's about $24 billion for health at a 6% accelerated rate every year. It's about 3% at $15 billion or $16 billion for the social services piece. The problem would be.... And I appreciate your position, that you'd like a silo that says this is for post-secondary education. So it is for the housing folks, and, if it ever happened, the child care folks--if it was just transferred to the province, to make sure it's spent on that. It makes it very difficult. I know you mentioned it in your response, but we can't just ignore constitutionally who's responsible for what. We just can't do that. I hear you and we'll certainly make that point.

I have one really quick question for our child care advocates who are here. I think it's a provincial responsibility, but that's my own personal opinion. The social planning group that was here earlier suggested that the national child benefit be increased. Would that satisfy you? I know you've had—let's be honest, the Liberals were here for 13 years and promised in every frigging election they had that they were going to have child care, and it didn't happen.

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

“Frigging” is a word.

I was interested in what the social planning witness said about an increase in the child benefit supplement. Do you have a comment on that?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Very briefly, if you could.

[Pat Wege]

The truth is that it is an income support program, and although we're not opposed to that, what we're looking for is a federal contribution to the provinces that can be used by the provinces to develop child care services.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I appreciate that. Thank you.