Finance Committee on Sept. 21st, 2006

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

That makes sense.

I want to say I appreciate Mr. Brown's presentation. I think I could listen to you reading the poem book and enjoy it. It was very good.

Ms. Sheutiapik, I wonder if I could ask you this quickly. We know you have tremendous challenges in the north, with a lot of new developments and a new emphasis on protecting and securing our northern territory and your need for a long-term game plan for your area. I think it's very sensible to be going in that direction. You mentioned something called the resources curse. That interested me because certainly every other part of the country I know has benefited hugely from resources. Of course, we have many countries in the global community who would give their right arm for a fraction of Canada's resources.

I was curious, then, as to why you might use a term like that about something that other countries long to have. Also, could you tell us what you believe the needs are in the communications area and in the infrastructure area to assist residents of your area to really move ahead and build a strong future with the opportunities that are coming your way?

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Unfortunately--

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Oh, no!

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

--Madame Ablonczy's preamble used her time.

We move now to Mr. Pacetti, who I hope will ask a similar question and give you a chance to respond. But this is entirely up to him, you see.

Five minutes, sir.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Yes. I can give Diane a hand, if you'd like. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I was going to save the question for Nunavut, but my question is also.... In your brief or while you were making your presentation, you cited quite a few times that we should be supporting the mining industry. But I would assume that the mining industry is already well supported. How would that benefit, along with other infrastructures that Diane was citing, the Nunavut territory in terms of development? Would it actually create more jobs? By putting more money towards mining, would it necessarily create more jobs? If they felt there were enough resources there, wouldn't the mining companies already be there?

[Lynda Gunn]

We have a resource person with us, Russell Banta, who has been working with us on this file. I'd like it if he could approach.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Sure, that would be fine.

[Lynda Gunn]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Proceed.

[Russell Banta, Representative, Nunavut Association of Municipalities]

To answer your question directly, I think there may be a bit of a misunderstanding. There is no proposal for any fiscal support for the mining industry. Rather, the comment was that the mining industry, or certainly a prominent group within the mining industry, is recognizing the need for communities in mineral-rich areas to get some direct benefits from the resource wealth that they produce. This is in fact partly in reference to Ms. Ablonczy's point.

The resource curse doesn't happen in Alberta, where you have an educated population and you have infrastructure. It's worth noting, perhaps, that no two communities in Nunavut are connected by road, so there is isolation of every community. There is not adequate education. So the entry level that we think of for a population isn't there. I grew up in Alberta and we had education. As a farm boy, you could get work on the rigs because you could read and write. That's not always the case in Nunavut.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

I have a quick question.

I missed the presentation from the Writers' Union of Canada, but in your brief you state that the cultural industry contributed $40 billion to the GDP. What industries in particular contributed to that--not industries; what type of sector in the cultural industry would represent the bulk of that $40 billion? Were we talking about movies? When you're talking about culture, it's wide and vast; it's amazing that a number of $40 billion has come up.

[Deborah Windsor]

It is wide and vast.

The foundation of that would be the writers. You identify movies, but for every movie there is a writer; for every dance, there is a creator who creates the story behind it. For every book, for every novel, for every single discipline within the cultural industry, there is a writer. They are in fact the foundation.

You would have a mid-sized portion directed to the writing of books, and then a small portion of every other discipline would relate to writers. The bottom line, in answer to your question, is that writers are the foundation to it.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you. That's my question.

You're requesting the employment insurance benefits to self-employed--that is, only for the writers who do have employment income and do pay into the employment--

[Deborah Windsor]

Yes. The way that works is that if they--

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

That's fine; I just wanted to make sure.

The time is limited. I have one more quick question.

Ms. Bourque, you suggested earlier that some companies have credits of between $10 million and $1 billion on their books, but what is the total amount these companies could receive from the Department of Revenue?

[Nathalie Bourque]

We were unable to obtain that information from the Department of Finance. The government is not required to publish that information, and therefore it is not available.

Having met with the representatives of four industries we work with--information technology, biopharmaceuticals, aerospace and defence, and the forest industry--we believe that the amounts are between $1 and $2 billion, and this is money that has not been paid to Canadian businesses by the federal government.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

I will use the chair's prerogative and ask a quick question of you, Madam Went.

I have had concerns expressed to me by lower-income pensioners and seniors in particular on a change that was made with respect to the death benefit from the Canada Pension Plan back in 1997-98. It reduced the amount from approximately $3,600 to $2,500. I recognize that in your organizational role you don't represent some of the lowest-income pensioners in Canada; nonetheless, I was interested in whether your organization has a view on that issue, and whether you felt that amount should be restored to its previous level.

[Pam Went]

To be honest, I don't really have a position on that. As you mentioned, our focus is on defined benefit pension plans. We do have pensioners who are in that area, but instead of pursuing augmentations through the CPP, we have gone back to our employers and have been able to increase their pensions as a result of that change.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Fair enough. Thank you very much.

Mr. Paquette.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much for your presentations. Unfortunately, it simply isn't possible to put questions to all of the witnesses.

Ms. Bourque, the Bloc Québécois is very interested in the idea of a refundable tax credit for research and development. It is even part of our plan to support the forest industry, because we are aware of the fact that Tembec is engaged in research and development, but makes no profit.

Have you attempted to determine how much it would cost--you had started to answer my colleague's question--over a period of several years, to implement this tax credit?

[Nathalie Bourque]

I don't know how much companies are claiming on a yearly basis. However, according to businesses in the four groups that we consulted, arrears amount to between $50 million and several hundred million dollars. Based on our assessment, arrears represent between $1 and $2 billion for the federal government. However, at the present time, that information has not been released to the public by the Department of Finance.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

So, I gather you don't have any exact, or even, approximate figures on that.

[Nathalie Bourque]

When we created this business coalition, we realized that from one company to the next--and that includes companies like CAE...

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

But CAE is not on the list for the business group.