Government Operations committee  That's an excellent question. I'm going to answer it indirectly. Well, first off, I'll answer it very directly: I don't know. The case studies in the peer-reviewed literature are typically of much larger P3s: $100 million, $500 million, and a billion and up. To respond to an earlier question, while we're dealing with this, most of the failures in P3s were in the so-called first wave of P3s in the 1980s and 1990s.

Government Operations committee  I'll be very quick. I want to address both the macro and micro, because I understand where you're going. I just want to reference the book that so influenced former President Clinton, Reinventing Government, which states that the role of government is to steer, not to row. To get right down to the micro level, and to follow up on what Ms.

Government Operations committee  Not exactly: I'm arguing that the political interests of members of Parliament, who are of course elected to represent their constituencies—their citizens, their voters—may express views that contradict the professionals. There are a lot of people, as we all know, who don't have a deep professional understanding, whether it be economics....

Government Operations committee  Thank you for inviting me. I apologize for being late. I was at Centre Block. I thought the meeting was in Room 237 at Centre Block. Before I go into my slides, I want to give you a quick preamble. I'm a former mortgage manager and lender for the Bank of Montreal. In the 1970s and 1980s, in fact, I worked in the building under construction right next door to this building.

Government Operations committee  Notwithstanding this appalling failure, I will argue that this failed P3 was due to poor decision-making by elected officials, and that does not invalidate P3s. Paradoxically, I will argue today that this failure validates my central or core thesis today: why P3s are an important tool in government procurement.

Finance committee  The biggest risk is that right now, the liability of the Government of Canada for CMHC is just under $600 billion, which is about one-third of Canada's GDP. That's an enormous amount of money, and that's an enormous liability. I'm not suggesting that it's going to fructify. But there's no need for a government agency to be doing this when we have one of the strongest institutional financial sectors in the world.

Finance committee  That's the kind of thing I am talking about when I say we need to identify gaps, needs, or deficiencies in Canada. Then we use public policy to address those needs. I can't see any other function of the immigration policy. It's not to “save the world”. The United Nations does that.

Finance committee  I think it's extremely appropriate, actually. I actually argued in an op-ed that it should go to 70—not 67—with a provision for those who are in very physically challenging jobs or an exception clause that will allow that. More and more of us are in services. Even though the figure quoted says that 15% are in manufacturing, that's a very misleading figure.

Finance committee  I was a candidate once in my life, in the 1993 election in Ottawa Centre against the late Marion Dewar, former mayor of Ottawa, and Mac Harb. I lost decisively and I did not challenge the results.

Finance committee  I am not a member, nor do I contribute to any political party.

Finance committee  That was the Progressive Conservative Party, that's right.

Finance committee  It's based on the needs of the Canadian economy in order to make us more competitive, so we can maintain a high standard of living, so that we can continue to afford our social programs and universities and so forth.

Finance committee  I haven't looked into the details, but you are asking more of a policy-level question. You and the members of Parliament are elected by the citizens of Canada, not by the citizens of some other country around the world. They have their own parliaments and their own representatives.

Finance committee  I'll start with free trade. I'm much more familiar with that. I've been teaching and researching free trade for, literally, 25 years. I'm absolutely mystified by people who don't, after this time, understand the importance of trade to well-being and standard of living. This has been known for 300 years, theoretically, from Adam Smith, Ricardo, to the present, and we know it from 300 of years of practice.

Finance committee  I never advocated the privatization of social housing. I argued that it should never be done by the federal government. Provincial governments are much closer to the people and they should be responsible. Those programs and resources should be transferred. Very quickly on mortgage insurance, there's a huge difference between mortgage insurance, which is a commercially profitable project, and student loans, which are seen as something that's not so profitable.