Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 18th, 2011

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

One of the documents I read talks about upgrading the labour force. What exactly are we talking about?

[Helen Jean Newman]

I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

It concerns upgrading the labour force. A document from the Library of Parliament refers to this. I don't know what is being referred to.

People learning...jobs...something about....

No, it doesn't mean anything?

[Helen Jean Newman]

No, sorry.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

No? Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Okay, we'll go on to our next questioner.

Mr. Hillyer, for five minutes.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

Actually, I just have one question. We talk about what we need to do from here, because that's all we can do; we can't go back into the past. However, we hope and expect that this won't be the last time we have a chance for the country to rally around something with such unity. So with 23 days left, as you're scrambling to do whatever it takes to get this done, if you could go back in time, what would you do differently? That will help us learn for the next time we have something neat like this.

[Terri McCulloch]

We've been so busy looking forward, we haven't had a chance to look back.

[Stacey Jones-Oxner]

And I think it will be important for us, at the end of this competition, to really take a good look back and put together a full report so that we can learn from what we did right and what we could have done better.

But it has been a very long campaign. As you saw in the video, from 2007, we have gone from 440 to 220 to 77. But we feel really confident about the plan that we have in place, and as we march into the last 23 days we're excited about the momentum and excited about being here today on Parliament Hill. We really have a chance, but we need everyone to come together to make it happen.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Have you ever thought, though, along the way that if only this had happened, or if only these people had been on board...?

[Helen Jean Newman]

There is one thing. From when New7Wonders announced that we were one of the top 28, we worked aggressively and very hard to get some corporate sponsors. The New7Wonders foundation, somewhat like the Olympics or the world soccer championship, has a lot of rules and regulations about sponsorship and partners.

We spent a lot of time and energy working with Tim Hortons, with Canadian Tire, with car companies, and bicycle companies. We had a list of about 20 major corporations, and, unfortunately, when the top 28 were announced, it didn't fit within the planning cycles of those major corporations. It would have been amazing if we could have had two or three major corporations on board, a Tim Hortons, a Canadian Tire, or someone like that working with us and partnering with us through all of their amazing channels and points of sale. We looked at Loblaws. We looked at Sobeys. It wasn't that these people were not passionate about it and very engaged in it; it just didn't work in their planning cycles, because they were planning much further out than the window we were able to offer them when we found out.

That would be one thing we could have done better. If we could have done better, it would have been to have more corporate sponsors—and always, money. But it was beyond our control.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Hillyer.

That completes our second round of questioning. Is it the will of the committee to continue questioning?

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, I have one quick question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Sure. You're up, so go ahead.

Is it the will of the committee to continue after Mr. Benskin's question?

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

I could ask a couple of questions.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

I think we have one more.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Okay. We'll do one more round, then.

Mr. Benskin.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

This might seem like a very lame question. We have been talking a lot about people being in the Bay of Fundy. I have a question about getting there. I remember my rather harrowing experience getting out of St. John's after the Junos two years ago. It took me two days to get out of St. John's. I'm not kidding.

I mean, people were flying in from all over the world and in from parts of Canada. How does one get there?

[Stacey Jones-Oxner]

Halifax has one of the finest airports, I would suggest. We are best in customer service, so I guarantee that when you fly into Halifax, we service a lot of airlines, and we're growing all the time

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

The main hub is Halifax.

[Stacey Jones-Oxner]

Or you can go to Fredericton or St. John.

[Helen Jean Newman]

You can also go by train. VIA has a train that takes you right down to Moncton, and you can hop off.

From my back door in Fredericton to my daughter's house in Guelph is about 14 hours by car, all of it on four lanes. You literally can get to the Bay of Fundy on a four-lane highway, with the exception of maybe about two hours on a little strip through Quebec, which as of 2014 will be four lanes. Then from Fredericton to St. John, or from Fredericton down to St. Andrews, would be another hour or hour and a half. Then of course there is the Nova Scotia side. From the perspective of flying, driving, or going by train, it really is quite easy to get to, with a number of options being available.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

And just—

[Helen Jean Newman]

It is St. John, not St. John's.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Sorry, I know. I go back to elementary school, and I can hear my teacher yelling at me.