Evidence of meeting #59 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:10 p.m.
NDP
12:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cement Association of Canada
Look, we estimate that cement consumption will double within 25 years.
12:10 p.m.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
All right.
However, as you indicated, in the end you do not wish to be constrained by greenhouse gas reductions, as planned in Canada.
12:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cement Association of Canada
Not at all. What we are saying is that there is a global reduction plan and it is being communicated to all governments, including the federal government.
12:10 p.m.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
However, you nonetheless do not want goods from countries such as China and India, who are exempted from the Kyoto Protocol, to enter Canada?
12:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cement Association of Canada
What we are telling the government is that if it wants to benefit from this strategic commodity—for example, Venezuela just nationalized its cement industry; in India—
12:10 p.m.
NDP
12:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cement Association of Canada
I believe that climate change is a global issue.
12:10 p.m.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
Agreed. Time is limited. Thank you, Mr. Boucher.
Mr. Dickie, I would like to thank you.
I have a brief question for Mr. Dickie. May I?
12:10 p.m.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
Mr. Dickie, you stated that there is a divergence in the tax treatment of owners and renters.
With regard to the tax credit in the budget for owners who do work on their own homes, for home renovations, would it have been somehow possible to extend this credit to renters, so that not just homeowners could benefit?
12:10 p.m.
President, Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations
Absolutely, it should be extended to renters. I would say that the mechanism should extend it to the rental owners, because they will be the ones putting in the money to do the renovations, which then benefit the renters. The renters will have improved rental accommodation, which tends overall—albeit in a marginal way—to reduce the cost of rental accommodation in the marketplace. So I very much support an extension of the home renovation tax credit to the rental housing industry.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to the witnesses for coming forward. It's been very interesting. It's always difficult for us to ask questions of everybody, so I will just ask a couple of quick questions.
I'll start with the fire chiefs and Mr. Simonds.
I was around when the bill was passed before this committee, but we also had a few problems with it. The major one was how were we going to track the volunteer hours. I think that was addressed, but I didn't see anything on that in your brief. How are we going to track the volunteer hours and make sure that volunteer firemen are not getting credit for playing cards at the fire station?
October 29th, 2009 / 12:15 p.m.
First Vice-President, Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs
Thank you very much for your question. That's an absolutely valid question.
We have responded previously and clarified this. For example, there is a very stringent provision with respect to the recording of this information. In particular, at the municipal, village, and town level, but also at the level of the office of the fire marshall, and workplace health and safety, there are a number of....
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Could this could be addressed through a log-in system and be certified by somebody who—
12:15 p.m.
First Vice-President, Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs
Exactly. It's about having sufficient auditing in place to negate any of those types of—
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I just wanted to put that on the record. Thank you.
Mr. McKee, I'll ask you a quick question as well. In regard to your request, have you approached Health Canada, or even the CIHR, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research?
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada
Absolutely. That's in the nature of our request. If you read our proposal, it actually funds a partnership between CIHR and us. So we have a memorandum of understanding with CIHR, and the funding could flow either through CIHR or directly to us.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
But what feedback have you had? Are they interested, or do they need more funding?
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada
Of course they're interested: they signed the memorandum of understanding two years ago.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Okay, but is there enough funding there, or do they require more funding?
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada
They require new funding to give effect to this as soon as possible.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So you would ask us to funnel it through CIHR?
