Finance committee  It is such a big topic. It's hard to peel back the onion on this. I think one of the things that has to be remembered in our industry in particular is that according to StatsCan, 99% of the firms active in our industry are small businesses and 60% have fewer than five employees.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I wish to first of all thank the committee members for providing the Canadian Construction Association with the opportunity to appear before you in connection with your annual pre-budget consultations. The Canadian Construction Association, as some of you know, represents some 20,000 member firms from coast to coast to coast in Canada, active in the non-residential sector of the construction industry.

Finance committee  Finally, I'll turn to capital cost allowances, CCAs. In Canada, class 38 purchases, which are basically mobile construction equipment, have a 30% declining balance, which means you can't effectively write off your machinery for almost 13 years. What we'd like to see is an accelerated CCA for that equipment equivalent to what happens in the United States where they have a 25% straight line depreciation.

Transport committee  That's an excellent question. One of the solutions we're looking at, at least with respect to the immediate concern we have, and that is the proposed regulatory changes to EDC's domestic powers, is to carve out some kind of an exemption, or at least some kind of pre-approval from ministerial authority, provided it's timely, to allow Canadian firms faced with that situation...where they know that without EDC's support, or some other vehicle to enable them to provide that kind of financial security, that they are going to be at a competitive disadvantage.

Transport committee  Correct.

Transport committee  That's probably a fair assumption, yes.

Transport committee  Correct.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  You're assuming that in those situations the inflated price comes completely from the pricing and not from something that's unique or strange about the job to begin with—

Transport committee  —and that the risk allocation is normal or traditional and isn't a situation in which they're throwing money at it because more risk is being put on the private sector. There are a lot of assumptions there.

Transport committee  I think you know the answer to that one.

Transport committee  I can't answer that question, because the City of Hamilton, if you're talking about the City of Hamilton, finds itself in this situation through no fault of its own, or through no desire on its part.

Transport committee  It's hard to know what's going on in their minds, but they've been very public about what the impact is. That would suggest to me it's a situation they would rather not be in and would like to be out of.

Transport committee  Well, I know that our members, in some cases, have agreements both with traditional building trades and with CLAC. In some provinces they are non-unionized and in other provinces they are unionized. So, very much the same employer uses the labour relations situation, depending upon the jurisdiction, that puts them in the best competitive position.

Transport committee  Yes, but our point is in restricting or limiting the competition, it doesn't matter who you limit or restrict it to, that's going to impact the price. It doesn't matter whether you're union-free, whether they're traditional building trades, or whether they're the CLAC union, if you restrict the competition to a few, you're welcoming that kind of situation.