Evidence of meeting #51 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was saskatchewan.
Dave Marit
They are very new programs. They were, to some degree, administered under Municipal Affairs and then they moved from there over to the Ministry of Highways, and the Ministry of Highways felt it could be better administered and delivered by us. So this is our first year in administering some of those programs.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
Thank you.
I also understand that there are, I think, in the report 296 rural municipalities that are responsible for roads, bridges, and such, and that through MREP and CPT there is a budget of $47 million for this infrastructure. I'm curious. Where does this funding currently come from?
Conservative
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
It's cost shared with the province. Okay, thank you.
I'd also like to ask a little bit about the cattle industry because you've talked about that. I know you are aware of the things the federal government is doing in terms of the $500 million AgriFlexibility program, the assistance to the agricultural sector in the form of expanded access to credit, and, most recently, that we have launched a world trade dispute settlement process over the U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labelling. But what I do want to ask you to expand a little bit on is your idea to attach a per-head payment to longer-term programs. You gave us one example. Are there any other types of strategies you could see that benefiting?
Dave Marit
I think there are two key areas we addressed in our brief this morning, one being of course SRM disposals, which is a federal regulatory regulation that we feel has a huge impact on the cattle producer and the livestock producer. It's something that has to be addressed. It puts us at an unfair advantage internationally.
Of course, we were happy to see the federal government challenge the country-of-origin labelling. We've heard the numbers by Minister Ritz, with the culmination that when you put everything together, SRM and country-of-origin labelling, we're hearing numbers up to $200 per head, which is trade distorting to our producers. If we don't do something very quickly, we're going to lose the cattle industry, and we're also going to lose the hog industry in this country, which has a huge impact on the economy nationally.
When the mayor of Toronto says the livestock sector has a huge impact on his city, then it tells you something, that it's not just in rural Canada.
Conservative
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to the witnesses for appearing. It's always interesting.
It sounds to me like in this province you don't have enough roads to get to the hospitals, and when you actually get to a hospital, there are no services, and if you need to call somebody, you can't call them. So...no questions.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
On a serious note, we're going to have a long week, so we have to lighten up a little bit.
Just briefly, I'm from Quebec, and I'm from an urban centre, so I don't know if I really care, but I just need to know. I'm dying to find out, Mr. Taylor, how much would your request be for roads in rural municipalities?
Dave Marit
What we've always asked for in the past is to fix the rural infrastructure to bring it to a primary weight standard so that we can be competitive--
Liberal
Dave Marit
No, there isn't. The number we've been asking for in the past is in the neighbourhood of $500 million.
Liberal
Dave Marit
No, that is what we need. If we could get it over a five-year program, it would be significant.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Would any of your roads not be eligible for any of the infrastructure programs that are out there presently?
Dave Marit
They are, but what we're finding is that when we put a rural road into an application base, when we're competing against water and waste water, it doesn't go up the criteria scale in the way we'd like to see.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Earle, what is your experience with the application for stimulus funding? How is that working out for your membership or your group?
President, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association
It appears to be working quite well in Saskatchewan. Certainly there was a time lag, and that seems to have been caught up. Our main concern right now is March 2011. If projects aren't finished by that time, do we cease, or does that period get extended through to the end of 2011?
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Were the majority of your projects approved? Was it the matching that was the problem? You said there was a delay in getting the program going.
President, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association
The matching is certainly a problem in some aspects. There are numerous communities in the province that just don't have the financial wherewithal to come up with their third, so they drop off the scope altogether. But it seemed to take quite a bit of time at the outset to get the ball rolling.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Do you have any idea how many projects you would have requested funding for?
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
In terms of percentage, how many of those projects would have gotten approval?
