Finance committee  To your point, though, Madam, it is in the rules. I don't see the rules in the budget. You say there have been four months of discussion, but we would—

Finance committee  Yes, if the rules are, as the friend beside me said, in the public's best interest.

Finance committee  It was their report, not ours, and I think it has a lot of merit, that you would consider a country giving up its right to own its telecommunications system.

Finance committee  It is about having, either as required by law or through incentive, access to places where historically there has not been good service. In Saskatchewan, and in Alberta under AGT, they were required, before they became federally certified, to supply services to rural communities.

Finance committee  First, you cannot, in my view, de-link or separate a telephone company from a broadcast company today; they are one and the same. If there is an issue, for example, around culture, whether involving Newfoundland or Quebec, what would AT&T or any foreign company have as thei

Finance committee  We haven't had that experience in Canada, but it is documented in the United States and other places—and in other industries, by the way, not telecommunications, because of the restriction—that immediately things such as R and D and head offices of foreign corporations leave Cana

Finance committee  They move head offices and R and D to the.... If it's Carlos Slim's, it moves to Mexico. Why wouldn't it?

Finance committee  At one time people thought the broadcasters were going to own the telephone companies. That's not the case. The telephone companies deliver the product, the pipe, and the receptacle, and they create a considerable proportion of good Canadian jobs. A concern of ours with foreign

Finance committee  The whole issue of the digitalization of telecommunications is what created this opening in spectrum. You don't have analog television anymore. The whole concept of where you're going to supply services requires I think restrictions or incentives that would allow rural communitie

Finance committee  We have done extensive research that is not in these documents because of the restrictions you have. There's no evidence in any of this discussion going on that competition will generate lower rates. Everyone wants better service and lower rates, but worldwide, show us apples to

Finance committee  Thank you very much. I do appreciate the opportunity to present to you. I'm Dave Coles, the national president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union. We represent approximately 40,000 workers who work on all aspects of telecommunications for many employers. Our p

International Trade committee  I know I don't have any time, but as Mr. Woods said, the problem we're faced with is a quagmire of legal jurisdictions. I think we have to work towards rules-based situations, because to tell a province that it can't control its own resources is heading for a constitutional and e

International Trade committee  Well, there are two parts to the question. One is that I can't speak on behalf of the Harper government. You'd have to ask them why they did it and put the resources of Canada at such risk. The issue is very disconcerting for our union, and that's all I can speak for, because we

International Trade committee  Yes, I did, a couple of times.

International Trade committee  The background for AbitibiBowater is extremely complicated. It was a cavalier move by two independent companies, Abitibi and Bowater, to run themselves into massive, incredible debts. When the economic crisis of September-October of 2008 struck, the company had a $1.4 billion un