Evidence of meeting #37 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Spokesperson, Canadian Festivals Coalition
It's not 40%. The average part of the government—
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
No, what you've suggested is that the government would pay up to 40%.
11:45 a.m.
Spokesperson, Canadian Festivals Coalition
Not 40%, 8%; 40% is the maximum public money from each festival, local, provincial, and national money. There is no 40%. The project is 8% of our budget.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Under eligibility criteria, you have minimum budget expenditures of $250,000, with no more than 40% coming from government funding. That's quite excessive.
11:45 a.m.
Spokesperson, Canadian Festivals Coalition
Yes, it's very big. We'd prefer it to be less than that. It's the maximum.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
11:45 a.m.
Spokesperson, Canadian Festivals Coalition
When over one-third of a festival is financed by public funds, it's not in good shape.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Sorry, sir.
Ms. Davis, a quick question. Make a case for me to the taxpayers of Peterborough. Why should their tax dollars, when they have a list of priorities of where they would like to see tax dollars spent--and believe me they do. Tell me why should an organization like yours be on that list of priorities?
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
11:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Odyssey Showcase
I'll talk very quickly then.
For everybody learning about the history of Canada, learning about the importance of being part of a great nation called Canada is important for every Canadian. If you look at statistics, you're going to find that schoolkids don't like history. They don't want to learn about history, and in some provinces—and this is from talking to educators—they're failing history.
This is an opportunity for an entire community to get involved in learning about what they've brought to the table in terms of celebrating the culture of Canada through past history, the present, and looking toward the future. It embraces every constituent living in your community, wherever they come from, wanting to learn about the first people and the Acadians and la musique Québécois and all the cultures that represent this great country called Canada.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Brian Pallister
Thank you.
We must move on now to Madam Wasylycia-Leis.
Five minutes to you.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chairperson. I'll go fast.
First, to Joyce Gordon, you're asking for a $5 million investment on an annual basis?
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
What would be the return on the savings that would accrue to this country and to taxpayers and to government revenues by investing that $5 million?
11:50 a.m.
Executive Director, Parkinson Society Canada
That's a great question. One of the problems we have is that we won't know that until we have the numbers. With the document that was done by Health Canada several years ago, we know what the costs were roughly at that time, but we don't know what the future cost will be. The expectation is that the population of people with Parkinson's disease will double in the next twenty years. We need to do some serious economic crunching of numbers and take a look at what savings there could be.
We also know that there are new treatments on the horizon, new surgical opportunities, new ways for people to get the care they need in their homes and their communities that could make a big difference to saving health care dollars if we know exactly where people are located and what the prevalence and incidence statistics are. We don't know that at this moment. We think we could do much better-targeted strategies and make better use of health care resources in communities if we knew exactly where Parkinson's was positioned within communities and provinces across the country.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Needless to say, there would be, based on what you said, a return on that investment that would multiply over the years.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Chuck, I really don't have a question. I'd just say that I think the lobby and the pressure on the government to stop the cancellation of the GST tourist rebate program is working, to some extent. In fact, the Conservatives have introduced a motion, ways and means motion number 7, and have so far not brought it forward, and I think the only reason is that they're worried they could lose it. So far three opposition parties seem to have indicated opposition to it. Just to let you know, this is a good time to keep the pressure up and to keep the faxes and e-mails coming.
11:50 a.m.
President, Frontier Duty Free Association, Association of Canadian Airport Duty-Free Operators
We look forward to working with the government to find a solution.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Gary, I don't know much about your organization, yet it seems to me it would play a valuable role in building capacity in communities.
In Winnipeg North we're struggling with the banks having left and the payday lenders coming in. Very soon now we're going to announce an alternative financial services agency that will not only help people get credit and loans but will also educate.
What do you need to make your council have a bigger presence in every community across this country?
11:50 a.m.
President, Canadian Foundation for Economic Education
With the federal government's support, we could take advantage of some of the extraordinary opportunities that are being presented.
I thank you for the opportunity of referring to Manitoba. Manitoba is the first province or state in North America to make a commitment to trying to ensure that economic and financial literacy is provided to their students.
We're currently working in collaboration with the minister of education and a number of stakeholders in that province to review the curriculum and offer recommendations for curriculum change, as well as for producing resources and training the teachers for implementation. If it's successful, it will stand as a unique model in North America, for the first government body to make a commitment in that area.
We also have a network of 3,000 community service agencies who are working with the unemployed and the economically disadvantaged. We have a network of over 500 immigrant-serving agencies that are working with newcomers to assist them.
We've made a representation to the government on this. At this particular point, if we were able to get some further financial assistance from the government—right now we're totally self-supporting—there are extraordinary opportunities to make progress in this area. The timing seems to be right, because there seems to be a heightened recognition among everyone that this is an urgent need. People are paying a great consequence for their ignorance, such as through these payday loans.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
The last question is to Bill Jeffery on the use of the tax system to change behaviour. You seem to really stress that. You show it works. We look at tobacco as an example.
Would it have made more sense for us to eliminate the GST for certain things such as books for kids, food products, feminine hygiene products, as opposed to making this overall blanket 1% or 2% reduction in the GST?
11:50 a.m.
National Coordinator, Centre for Science in the Public Interest
Certainly the sales tax should be reviewed with the idea of ensuring that the nutrition advice the Government of Canada is giving to people, and the aspirations of Canadians—for instance, that our kids read more, or that we purchase things that are absolutely essentials, whether it's feminine hygiene products, or fruits and vegetables.... The tax system shouldn't interfere with those decisions; it should actually promote them. I think the GST rules have to be reviewed in that perspective.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
October 19th, 2006 / 11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Let me continue that line of questioning, Mr. Jeffery. In your brief you state that you want to increase the excise tax, but I don't see there being any excise tax on food, so it's not 100% clear.
It's not a new food tax. Here you say, “At present the Excise Tax Act appears to partly acknowledge the importance of nutrition....” I don't believe there's an excise tax on food.