Dramatically.
Evidence of meeting #43 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
Evidence of meeting #43 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
9:05 a.m.
Provincial Co-ordinator, First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
Very dramatically. It's a very direct way to do it.
9:05 a.m.
Julie Norton Provincial Chair, First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
I would add, too, that there's a multiplier effect in terms of the economic aspect. I think this was mentioned by Ms. Sinclair. When you pay those kinds of wages, all the research shows that when funding goes primarily to women--they're the ones who work in the child care sector, for the most part--they tend to spend their income on their families and in local environments. That money stays in a community.
So when the federal government is talking about stimulus packages, this would be a huge economic stimulus and would have a great economic impact. Quite frankly, most of the other stimulus projects are going to able-bodied white men. A lot of women are not going to ever see that except coming through the door in somebody else's paycheque. Women are 50% of the citizens of Canada, give or take a few percentages. We deserve access to that. And children, who do not vote, need to be taken seriously around stimulus and around care.
9:05 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Thank you for that.
I have a final question before I turn things over to Mr. Davies.
9:05 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Ms. Jackson, has the City of Delta done an economic impact study or a community impact study on the fact that we're not dredging?
9:05 a.m.
Mayor, Corporation of Delta
I don't have the figures at hand, sir. We have undertaken to “clean up”, as we'll call it, the Ladner harbour, our fishing harbour, this past year. It has been very expensive. We did undertake to take out the old barges, take out the sunken vessels, and take out any hazardous materials that have gone to the bottom of the harbour.
I think, however, that's about as far as local government can really go. We toyed with the idea of looking for some funding from the government under the grants program, but we cannot continue to sustain that from a local government level. We simply don't have the dollars.
Incidentally, I really do want to thank the federal government on behalf of all the local governments in Canada that have received infrastructure funds. It is a huge boost to all of us. In particular, I want to thank those who made it happen.
9:05 a.m.
NDP
9:05 a.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
It takes me one minute to clear my throat, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to Vancouver. I think I'm the only MP here from Vancouver, so I want to thank all of you for taking the time to come and talk to us.
I'll have to be brief.
To Mayor Dahling, you say in your brief that the public safety ministry policy is to “maintain and enhance public safety in every community across the province”, but that it is “not possible for this service plan to be implemented if the funding is not available for the RCMP to implement it”. You point out that the RCMP are “removing all police officers from communities of less than 5,000 that have a single member stationed in them”, and you say that funding is “desperately required to facilitate RCMP to protect citizens”.
Can you maybe enlighten us on what specifically you think will be the consequences in your community if this policy of removing RCMP officers is implemented?
9:10 a.m.
Mayor, Village of Tahsis
Our community is an hour and a half away from the closest RCMP station if they take that away. We also have another community that we can get to by boat where they've done this already. Their crime rate has gone way up. We're afraid that because there's nothing there, businesses will end up paying higher insurance costs, since people will know that it's an hour and a half before the RCMP will be able to get to them. We have drug issues that will become bigger. Those are the things we worry about. I know that some small communities are closer to bigger cities, but ours is an hour and a half away by a dirt road--it also has to do with conditions as to how they get there.
9:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Davies and Mr. Julian.
We'll go to Mr. Pacetti, please, for a five-minute round.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for appearing. It's always fun to be out here in the west listening to different points of view. It's a struggle for us because we have various briefs and issues that we have to discuss and our time is limited. Please bear with us. And we try not to be partisan, but it's in our blood.
Having said that, Ms. Montani, in your brief you talk more about child development than you talk about child care. This government seems to be hard-headed in terms of understanding what early childhood development means and what child care provides to families. They've decided that $100 a month for parents with children under six is the answer and solution to all. They don't seem to understand that there's anything else.
In your brief you talk about early childhood development and you put a different spin on it. Can you perhaps put in simpler terms what we need early childhood development for so that we don't necessarily have to call it child care? Is there a difference?
9:10 a.m.
Provincial Co-ordinator, First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
On early childhood development, young children require quality learning environments, care environments, and they are the same when you're young because early childhood education is in fact play-based if it's done well.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
9:10 a.m.
Provincial Co-ordinator, First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
That would start at age three, but child care should be available early. There's infant child care so that families can work. If we can expand maternity and paternity leave, it would also be beneficial.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
9:10 a.m.
Provincial Co-ordinator, First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
Child care at home is one way to do it. There are many different models.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
When the parents are not home and there's nobody at home to supervise them, it would be nice if they had access to child care.
9:10 a.m.
Provincial Co-ordinator, First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
Access to quality care, because often kids are left with a neighbour. If we don't have regulated quality child care spaces, what happens is that people leave their children with neighbours or they leave them at home. They need to work. We hear stories of people leaving food on heating vents to warm up because they're working their second shift in the hospital.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
You're not the only one who's heard those stories.
I don't mean to cut you off, but I only have five minutes.
9:10 a.m.
Provincial Co-ordinator, First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
Yes, but it's very important.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I want to talk about sports and children.
Mr. Bird, your association has done a lot of work. I'm not sure who you represent in global terms, but I'm interested in terms of the sporting environment. There are never enough sporting facilities no matter where you go, whether it's the regions or big government centres. There's always a problem with not enough parks or not enough skating rinks. There's a lot of money being spent, especially in Quebec now with the Quebec government providing money for sporting facilities as well. There just doesn't seem to be enough.
The problem is at the grassroots. Sports are becoming more exclusive instead of inclusive. I'm finding that if your child is not a super elite athlete by the age of 8 or 9--and I'm going through that with my kids right now--then there's no future. When we need the kids to participate at the ages of 14, 15, 16, there's nowhere for them to go. I understand that we have to promote Olympic athletes and we want to promote excellence. What's your take on that? I'm seeing a contradictory thing going on in society today.
9:10 a.m.
Senior Leader, Sport Matters Group
My first take is that I have an eight-year-old playing in the Pontiac, so we'll be down to Montreal at some point and take you on.
There are really three things that drive community participation.
One is the capital requirement, and in 2005 numbers there is a $15 billion infrastructure deficit in the country. We know that over the next 18 months, if fully implemented, there'll be $3 billion addressed. What you're experiencing is the $12 billion gap.
The second determinant is the quality of the sport experience. There's significant work...led by leaders from Quebec and British Columbia, called the Canadian Sport for Life model. This is now three or four years under way. It's full purpose, adopted by federal-provincial-territorial governments, is to shift the sports system from an exclusive model to an inclusive model. That's the driver. This needs to be implemented.
The third thing is community capacity, and we've brought two ideas forward here today. One is to modernize the Income Tax Act so that amateur community sport is indeed charitable. This will help--
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I understand amateur sport, and I don't think we have an argument. The problem is what I've seen in minor league hockey. I'm a coach in minor league hockey and minor league soccer, and if the kids are not playing elite the parents don't take the initiative. The big clubs find a way to raise money, but the less-skilled teams have a very difficult time. If you don't have an energetic coach or manager who takes the initiative, or one or two parents--it doesn't take a whole team--there seems to be a problem.