International Trade committee  If I may add to that, I think this is also connected to the broader issue of how we develop industry in this country. I think there used to be more collaboration among the different actors in the economy—the businesses, education institutes, and the labour unions—in terms of sect

International Trade committee  I know Don Tapscott and his son have written a book on it, but I haven't read that book. Maybe you have.

International Trade committee  That's the Canadian expertise on the issue.

International Trade committee  I think it's really important to close that loophole, and it's not something that would necessarily be that difficult. Some have said you wouldn't even need a legislative change, but I think it's better to have that, in terms of the excise tax. As you mentioned, a lot of differen

International Trade committee  Thanks very much for the opportunity to discuss this very important issue. We've been concerned about the taxation of e-commerce for many years because of its impact on our members with significant job loss in the media industry, and its impact on the broader economy, our social

Finance committee  I'm glad you raised that question. Our union actually represents a number of people in the media and broadcasting industry, both public and private. It has found that a lot of its business advertising dollars have gone outside of Canada, to Google, Facebook, and other companies t

Finance committee  As I mentioned in the presentation, I think it's increased investments in areas such as child care. I'm really glad that the government made that commitment in the last budget, but I think most people agree that it wasn't enough, that it's going to cost a lot more to have an acce

Finance committee  Thank you very much. On behalf of the 650,000 CUPE members who deliver quality public services in communities across Canada, thank you for the opportunity to present our priorities for the next federal budget. Our written submission addresses the questions that the committee po

Finance committee  I would agree on that. A point I'd like to make is that if you did have a bank publicly financed with a lower cost of financing, some of the smaller areas of the country that are facing a higher cost for borrowing could benefit the most. In response to your previous question,

Finance committee  Randall has worked on a number of different sides of this, and he is an expert on that. Those are the rates of return that would be expected by the private sector. Michael Sabia and others have confirmed that this is the rate of return they expect on this. If you are expecting t

Finance committee  I'll start. There was a large Metronet one in the U.K., and the U.K. government had to bail it out.

Finance committee  In Canada, the proponents of some of the first P3s here in Ottawa just walked away from it, and the government had to pick it up. They didn't go bankrupt. One was backed by a U.K. firm, the other by Sensplex. Three years into the 30-year project, they said they wanted more money

Finance committee  If I could interject here, you're absolutely right. There have been problems in all different types of projects, and there had been a problem with what they called optimism bias in the public sector, so it's not unique. The concern with these large private sector deals is that y

Finance committee  That's a very good question. There's a lot of public money in this, $35 billion to start, from the federal government. I think there should be some representative of the public interest on this, not necessarily a politician but a public official at a high level, if there's that m

Finance committee  It's the mode, it's not necessarily the type of project. My big concern is the higher cost of private finance that will pervert it.