Human Resources committee  First of all, we saw what happened when the government was backstopping the fund under the status quo system, when bad days didn't really come along too often in the last number of decades and there was no requirement for the federal government to contribute to backstop the fund.

Human Resources committee  Can I answer that?

Human Resources committee  First of all, it's going back to the way the system used to be. That's what we're asking for, because that multiple was not always there. Secondly, the one good thing about having this separate, independent fund now is that hopefully legislators and policy-makers will put more a

Human Resources committee  It depends on the program.

Human Resources committee  I'm talking about a new program. This is my concern: the fact that if you have a reserve that gets extremely high, some program will come along and somebody will say, “We can fund it there. It won't affect the fiscal situation. Let's throw it on the backs of employers and employe

Human Resources committee  Just covering the employees' costs was intended to get them off EI, which would entail savings. The problem with the previous measures was that they were only for permanent relocation, but an industry like ours is temporary. That's what I believe you are now recommending through

Human Resources committee  It's worth pointing out that the crown corporation, as I understand it, is not going to have that power.

Human Resources committee  We would agree also. There's some historical reference for this. When the development we used for this was first set up, it was agreed that management and labour would have some control over how those funds were spent. That was what became the Canadian Labour Force Development

Human Resources committee  Mr. Chairman, my only concern here would be that its set-up gets delayed inordinately. That would be my only concern, and I think there is some tweaking we're going to have to do down the road in any event. But please, in your deliberations, don't delay this. When you get your po

Human Resources committee  It's a very important issue. They don't want to see seepage out of the fund, even for good purposes along the way. Let's be honest, when successive ministers of finance were asked where those funds were going, it was to balance the government's books. We'd like to see it stand al

Human Resources committee  One of the concerns I have about this whole process is this. Let's say that we put the new financing toward a crown corporation in place and that we have a new rate-setting mechanism. I'm hoping that parliamentarians don't say that we're now finished with it and we don't need to

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Canadian Construction Association welcomes this opportunity to appear before you today and share with you the views of our nearly 16,000 member firms across the country on the infrastructure measures contained in the recent federal budget. It probably

Finance committee  I'll address the capacity concern, and it is a bit of a myth. There's no question that long term we're concerned about labour supply and labour capacity, in particular, because of demographics and the number of people who are going to be retiring. But certainly in the short term,

Finance committee  Well, we're about to release a study in a couple of weeks that we did jointly with federal government contracting agencies and others on cost predictability for projects. There are a number of factors that go into that. In the construction industry, the last thing we contractor

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you heard, my name is Michael Atkinson. I am president of the Canadian Construction Association. I'm here today not only in that capacity, but also as a member of the Coalition for Fair Construction Practices. Joining me this morning are three other m