There are no cuts to Environment Canada.
Evidence of meeting #3 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
Evidence of meeting #3 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
4:15 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
There are no cuts to Environment Canada.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Were there no cuts to Environment Canada, to the EnerGuide for Houses program?
4:15 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes, there are some programs that will not be followed through. They are included in the $7 billion or so of measures that will not be implemented.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you confirm that the EnerGuide for Houses for low-income Canadians has been cancelled?
4:15 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Well, there is a program that exists already in the fall update providing additional funding for that.
May 10th, 2006 / 4:15 p.m.
Robert Dunlop General Director, Economic Development and Corporate Finance, Department of Finance
Mr. Chair, and members of the committee, I can't answer the question about specifically how Environment Canada has been affected. You were speaking about the elements that were included under Bill C-66, which was passed. Some elements were proceeded with in this budget, and the government also indicated that other elements wouldn't continue, and that included the EnerGuide programs--some programs run by Environment Canada and others by Natural Resources Canada.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Correct, but that would be a cut. The EnerGuide for Houses for low-income Canadians has been cut.
4:15 p.m.
General Director, Economic Development and Corporate Finance, Department of Finance
Yes, that's correct. That's part of the--
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
The $500 million over five years is no longer in the budget.
4:15 p.m.
General Director, Economic Development and Corporate Finance, Department of Finance
That's part of the amount that Monsieur Lapointe was speaking about earlier.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
4:15 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
I have two questions. The first one is about the Department of Finance. The Prime Minister often talks about the next equalization report. I wanted to know how this report is coming along. When will it be made public? Mid-May and late May have been mentioned. What is the objective?
4:15 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Federal-Provincial Relations and Social Policy Branch, Department of Finance
The latest that we hear from the expert panel is that they anticipate having their report completed by the end of the month.
4:15 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Federal-Provincial Relations and Social Policy Branch, Department of Finance
There is not an announced date as yet, but we are anticipating it.
4:15 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
All right.
For my second question, I would like to come back to what was said earlier about the impact of the extension of mortgage insurance to private companies other than Genworth Financial Canada. There has not been much said about the impacts that this extension would have on Genworth and other possible private insurers.
Has anyone studied the effects of this on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, on its market share and eventually on its current accumulated surpluses?
4:15 p.m.
Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
The policy in this area as in others is to promote competition so as to ensure competitive prices for buyers of properties. No estimate has been made to find out exactly how large a market share each of the stakeholders would have, according to the various scenarios. It will be up to the market to decide, under the policies set by the stakeholders, what the effects will be on market shares.
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Would you be inclined to say, intuitively, that new players will take market shares from both Genworth Financial Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or whether the private insurers will divide up the same share they hold at present?
4:20 p.m.
Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
It will be up to the market to decide, in the light of strategies used as much by CMHC as Genworth Financial Canada and the new stakeholders.
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
For now, you have not done any analyses to try and see how the...
4:20 p.m.
Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
We are not making any a priori judgments on the way the market will react when the new competitors arrive. As a rule, competition ensures better prices and better service, and produces better results as much for the clients as for financial institutions and in the end the buyers of properties.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Garth Turner Conservative Halton, ON
Thank you.
I do want to pick up from where I left off and where my colleague followed up on this. I have some basic questions here about vote 10.
The benefits of competition, as I understand from your last response, would be more competitive pricing and better service. On what do we base those comments?
