Finance committee  The short answer is yes. I know that Ms. Charlton has told us unequivocally that if the Government of Canada moves forward with something that would deal with the issue of the transfer of skilled people from one part of the country to another, she would withdraw her bill in a h

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. My name is Bob Blakely, and I am privileged to represent the men and women who build and maintain Canada. With me today is Mr. David Wade from the Newfoundland and Labrador building and construction trades. We're in an industry that employs

Finance committee  There are two things, sir. First, I am not asking that the people of Canada give a handout to a construction worker somewhere so that he can go and get a job somewhere else. If he is prepared to stand the cost of doing it, he has to get himself somewhere else, keep himself somew

Finance committee  But they are borrowed.

Finance committee  In some cases it's appropriate. If people are on the provincial nominee program—

Finance committee  —and they have more than two years, plus Canadian qualifications, they can apply from within Canada. The suggestion I was trying to make is this. We spend about $60 million-odd a year administering the temporary foreign workers program. We could save some of that dough if we wer

Finance committee  Yes. Go ahead, Chris.

Finance committee  What we've really proposed is a pilot project to see how it works and to find the bugs in it. A small program like the home renovation tax credit provided $10,000; people got 13% of the money back, and it put a whole bunch of people to work. We think a small program like this, wi

Finance committee  If you were to look at our industry—we're a baby boom industry—you would see that 25% of the current construction industry, the people who have built the country for the last 35 years, are going to leave. Not to put too fine a point on it, the people who do the demographics say t

Finance committee  The short answer is that we don't, but we haven't for the last 30 years, so it's probably not going to be a big deal.

Finance committee  I agree.

Finance committee  I agree.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. With me today is Mr. Chris Smillie. Mr. Smillie, from my office, has cufflinks today, which is explained by the fact that, first, his mom is going to be watching today, and second, he had to beg them from me in order to be here. Thank you very

Human Resources committee  I wasn't talking about the GST, though.

Human Resources committee  EI wasn't supposed to pay the debt.