Human Resources committee  The only other place it can come from is the pockets of people through EI as premiums, and I don't know that that's necessarily fair.

Human Resources committee  Nor is the ability of the board that was put in place to manage that: it has such a small window to recast the contribution rate.

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I'd like to thank you very much for taking the extra day to hear witnesses. My name is Bob Blakely. I'm the Canadian director of the building trades. The building trades are the unions that represent construction workers in t

Finance committee  Construction is a business that has upwards of 350,000 contractors in it, most of whom employ a small number of people. Each one of those businesses has a capacity. A large national construction company like Black & McDonald isn't going to be doing a home renovation. That's

Finance committee  I agree; Black & McDonald, of course. That's their business. The smaller--

Finance committee  Yes, just about all of them.

Finance committee  I think you are taking my comments somewhat out of context. The context is basically that very small construction projects aren't done by contractors; they're done by the entrepreneur who has a roll of wire or some pipe in the back of his pickup truck.

Finance committee  I agree.

Finance committee  In our business, the small entrepreneur is the company most likely to do his business in the underground economy.

Finance committee  Without trying to sound partisan at all, our two criticisms really were that it wasn't rolling out fast enough and we have this fear that the bulk of the stimulus money is going to hit at a time when the economy has recovered, which is the wrong time.

Finance committee  The second portion is that we think the money should be used strategically. It should be tied to other initiatives that the Government of Canada has: a better transportation system, looking at the reduction of greenhouse gases, energy efficiencies, targeted and focused spending.

Finance committee  I can't speak to that. I would say this: if they need a hockey rink, we promise we'll build it and we'll build it with quality construction.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I don't think it lies at the feet of any particular group. The fact that the money flows from the federal government to provincial governments that have to get the provinces on side with a number of provincial matching schemes makes it more and more difficult. We need a number of