Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Mark Yakabuski.
I am very pleased to have this opportunity today to speak on behalf of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, or IBC. This is the national association representing home, automobile and business insurance companies across Canada. As an industry, it accounts for some $35 billion in premiums and indirectly generates more than 100 000 jobs across Canada.
Mr. Chairman, I want to talk to you about three very important things today.
First, I want to say what a pleasure it is to have the committee out in such full force today. I appreciate the time accorded to these sorts of things.
I want to talk about the importance of injury prevention in Canada, of having a competitive tax regime for Canadians, and of ensuring we invest enough dollars in this country's basic infrastructure.
First and foremost, on injury prevention, preventable injuries in this country—the injuries we have on our highways, in our homes, at work, and in leisure activities—cost the Canadian economy today, at very conservative estimates, $15 billion a year in lost productivity and additional health care costs.
At the Insurance Bureau of Canada, we have been advocating for some period of time that Canada should take a lead, but we should look at programs that have been active in Great Britain and in the Scandinavian countries. They have invested much more in raising public awareness about injury prevention. If you look at their statistics with respect to injury prevention, they do very well.
We know how costly health care is in this country and what a challenge it will be to meet the demographic challenge our health care system will face in the years ahead. We need to find other ways to economize in our health care system. One of the most favourable ways would be to invest modestly in injury prevention, because literally billions of dollars can be saved by having fewer injuries on our roads, at work, at play, and in our homes.
In our detailed presentation today I have a program suggesting that the Government of Canada take a lead on investing very modestly some $50 million over a five-year period that could make a substantial difference, believe it or not.
The second thing I want to talk about is the importance of a competitive tax regime. Our companies are able to provide automobile, home, and business insurance to Canadians because people from around the world think Canada is a good place to invest. Over the last three or four years, as we improved the insurance system in Canada, literally billions of new dollars were invested. So we can provide insurance to small businesses and households in this country at a competitive rate that otherwise would be jeopardized if those investment dollars were not coming to Canada.
In its last budget the government announced the very favourable reduction of the capital tax by 2006 and further income tax reductions later on in this decade. I simply want to underline the importance of absolutely ensuring that from an international perspective Canada remains a competitive tax regime. We know that the combined federal and provincial tax rates in Canada are some of the highest in the OECD, and that will continue to be a challenge for this Parliament.
I want to recommend that every effort be done to ensure that Canada remains competitive, because that competitiveness translates directly, for example, in our sector, to affordable and available insurance for Canadians.
The last thing I want to leave with you is the importance of investing in basic infrastructure. I commend the government for having set aside a very significant sum of money for infrastructure agreements between Canada and the provinces in its last budget. Historically those infrastructure agreements focused on what I sometimes call the sexy infrastructure projects. Those are the projects we all take note of, such as investment in highways, which we certainly agree with. But all too often they are not investments in basic infrastructure, such as sewage and water treatment facilities across Canada.
Every municipality in this country can tell you, Mr. Chairman, that we are severely underinvesting in basic sewage systems and water technologies in Canada. If we do not increase our investments in these basic infrastructures, the quality of life we prize in this country is going to be threatened.
I would recommend that you act on this plan as quickly as possible.