Evidence of meeting #40 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
What stage should it be introduced in the process for the cattle? I'm just focusing on the cattle now.
4:50 p.m.
President, Food Safety Division, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc.
I think it should be made available widely to the cattle industry—to dairy and beef cows, as well as feedlot cows.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Lee, is there a costing affiliated with your suggestion in your second recommendation for a national public safety officer?
4:50 p.m.
Assistant to the General President, Canadian Operations, International Association of Fire Fighters
What's the question again? I'm sorry.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Would there be a cost allocated? You're asking for allocation of funds for the establishment of a national public safety officer compensation fund.
4:50 p.m.
Assistant to the General President, Canadian Operations, International Association of Fire Fighters
We think the public safety officer compensation fund is going to be about $6 million a year. On the statistics issue, we think there are currently departments within the federal government who can handle that. We don't think there'd be any cost to that.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
And would it be a completely independent office that would run this?
4:50 p.m.
Assistant to the General President, Canadian Operations, International Association of Fire Fighters
No. We've suggested HRSDC, or maybe the National Research Council or something along that line.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Okay, great. Thanks.
Mr. Bradley, very quickly, a couple of years ago you also made a presentation for environmentally friendly vehicles. My suggestion was that you should maybe speak to some environmental groups and get them to buy into that. Have you had any success on that end?
September 15th, 2009 / 4:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Trucking Alliance
Yes, we have. That's a matter of record.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
All right. That was your chance to sell it a little bit.
Mr. Dinsdale, just quickly again. I know you've made presentations in the past. My understanding is that you've always got funding, but as you said, it's a problem because it's not recurring funding. Correct? You have to reapply all the time.
4:50 p.m.
Executive Director, National Association of Friendship Centres
The program first started in 1972. It's been called the migrating native peoples program; it's changed to different titles. In 1996 it was the aboriginal friendship centre program. All the way through till today, it's been stuck at the exact same funding level as 1996. It hasn't increased one cent since that day. The impact is on the ground on local executive directors.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So if we can save money by, let's say, granting the money over a three- or four-year period, we could actually find more money to give to you. Correct?
4:50 p.m.
Executive Director, National Association of Friendship Centres
I don't think the bureaucratic entanglement we get into is necessarily a cost measure, other than the interest we pay on short-term loans that we take out. I don't think that's going to go a long way to bringing us from the $130,000 on average we have up to the $200,000 on average that's required. I think it's merely a function of the heat, the hydro, the insurance, the staffing dollars. Everything has gone up in cost. Our costs remain fixed. There's been about a 50% impact on our purchasing dollar on the ground. We're trying to catch up in terms of the funding these front-line agencies receive.
So I don't think there'd be cost savings per se.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
4:50 p.m.
Executive Director, National Association of Friendship Centres
It's been fixed since 1996. There's not been a cent increase since then.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank our guests for coming and hanging in here until 5 o'clock. I just have a couple of things to say before I get to the question I have for Mr. Lee.
I think, Mr. Dinsdale, you make some very good points, and I appreciate your coming here. I've been on the committee for a number of years and I don't recall your organization being here before; I may have missed it, but I appreciate your presentation.
Ms. Russell, I want to put a plug in for the Burlington chapter of your organization. They come to see me twice a year. I'll be frank with you that we disagree on a lot of issues, but we do sit down and have a meeting. They're very proactive and they're a good group and I believe in them; we just don't necessarily believe in the same thing.
Mr. Lee, the firefighters do a great job in the city of Burlington, and they've come to see me every year. They brought their lobby book forward in April, when they do their lobby days here. The one item in it that's not in your presentation today is the aspect of the CPP reduction because you're forced to retire early. You'd like the CPP requirements to go five years earlier.
I didn't see that in your presentation today. Could you tell me why that is?
4:55 p.m.
Assistant to the General President, Canadian Operations, International Association of Fire Fighters
Obviously we had to prioritize our issues because of the time constraints here. In fact, we're actually in the process of dealing with that issue through the CPP reform that's being proposed now.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay, I appreciate that.
In the same vein as the $300,000 you're looking for, and I don't want to be crass about it—I was at the memorial on Sunday, which was very good and very appropriate to have held it on the Hill—but I'm assuming this is for firefighters or policemen killed on the job, not from disease-related issues. Or are you envisioning that the latter be included?
4:55 p.m.
Assistant to the General President, Canadian Operations, International Association of Fire Fighters
Absolutely, we would include the disease-related deaths. That's just a slower way of dying on the job for our members. Cancer in the fire service is at an epidemic level in Canada, and the provincial governments have recognized that by looking at presumptive cancer legislation. We have to recognize that.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay.
I've seen the firefighters for the number of years that I've been here. I was on a municipal council before that, so I saw them on a different issue.
How long has the international association been here asking for this fund at the federal level? Is it a recent thing, or have you been doing it for years? Would you have asked the Liberal government for this when they were in power?
4:55 p.m.
Assistant to the General President, Canadian Operations, International Association of Fire Fighters
We've been asking for this for 11 years.
