Finance Committee on May 10th, 2006

[Paul-Henri Lapointe]

There are no cuts to Environment Canada.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Were there no cuts to Environment Canada, to the EnerGuide for Houses program?

[Paul-Henri Lapointe]

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.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Can you confirm that the EnerGuide for Houses for low-income Canadians has been cancelled?

[Paul-Henri Lapointe]

Well, there is a program that exists already in the fall update providing additional funding for that.

[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.

[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.

[Robert Dunlop]

Yes, that's correct. That's part of the--

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

The $500 million over five years is no longer in the budget.

[Robert Dunlop]

That's part of the amount that Monsieur Lapointe was speaking about earlier.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

[Le président, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Mr. St-Cyr.

[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?

[Barbara Anderson]

The latest that we hear from the expert panel is that they anticipate having their report completed by the end of the month.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

It will be at the end of May.

[Barbara Anderson]

There is not an announced date as yet, but we are anticipating it.

[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?

[Serge Dupont]

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.

[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?

[Serge Dupont]

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.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

For now, you have not done any analyses to try and see how the...

[Serge Dupont]

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.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

All right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Mr. Turner.

[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?