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.
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just quickly, Mr. McLellan, it's interesting that the chamber requests more money for training, but you requested it in two different fashions: one, for the government to invest more money in the institutions themselves, and then you requested some money for training in the actual companies that are going to employ people. Am I correct in that?
11:05 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce
No, it would be for the facilities. There are two costs for the operation of a post-secondary institution: one is the capital cost of housing the students and for programming, and the second is the operational cost. The challenge we've seen here is that there may be a capital assistance program for the facilities, but the operational dollars are a challenge. So it's not direct to the companies now.
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So how does that affect your membership? Why is that of interest to you?
11:05 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce
Right now, in Saskatchewan, we have a significant challenge in getting enough people into our post-secondary facilities, including everyone from apprentices all the way up to doctors. We face the challenge because the capital investment by our provincial government and its partners—and federally, in some situations—has not been significant enough to keep up with the demand. Our argument for this strategic investment by the federal government right now is that even though our economy is still going very well, there are more unemployed people here than there were a year ago. Our perspective would be to get those people into training now so that when we come out of this recession we will see greater productivity out of those individuals, for their own benefit as well as for Canada.
I understand post-secondary education, by and large, has been a provincial government responsibility, but in the era of fiscal stimulus programming by the federal government, we think this would be a brilliant move, and one that would not only deliver advantages to Canadians individually—
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Yes, I understand that, and I think we've heard it in our deliberations across the country. I don't think there's a dispute on that.
I'm just wondering about this from your perspective as a group that represents business interests. We've heard from different parts of the country where there is just not enough skilled labour, and in certain parts of the country it is for specific training or specific sectors.
I'm just wondering if that is the case in Saskatchewan, or is it just a blanket approach where you just need better qualified and more skilled people? Is it a question of labour skills or is it more one of intellectual capacity? That's basically what I'm asking. Where is the investment most important for your membership?
11:05 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce
We would suggest that it's both. We need both the degree programs that would give us engineers and we need the apprenticeship, and in some cases we need the short courses. One of the challenges we face in this province is the entry-level folks, referenced earlier, regarding the work around mines. In the mining sector you have to have grade 12 in order to be employed in most cases. If you live in a northern community, you want to stay in that community, and you don't have grade 12, you can't get a job that will pay $70,000 and allow you to stay in the community you choose.
Post-secondary facilities are now being forced or encouraged or on their own are training people to that grade 12 type of program, that skill enhancement. We need it from the completion of grade 12 in the post-secondary facility all the way to the engineering post-grad programs and so on. It's literally across the board in this province.
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Would you see your membership evolving somehow in terms of trying to help that along?
11:05 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce
Absolutely. We have examples right now where Cameco and a provincial-federal government partnership are putting $30 million, I believe, towards training northern community individuals. In our post-secondary institutions now we see many of the corporations--EnCana, I'm sure, is a good example--partnering with programs, assisting with curriculum, assisting with equipment upgrades. We'd be there in a heartbeat, and we are today and we would be tomorrow.
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you.
Quickly, Mr. Marsh, is the existing distribution network that exists with traditional gas companies not an area of interest that would be able to be utilized today?
11:10 a.m.
Vice-President, Corporate Supply Management, Special Projects, USA Division, EnCana Corporation
Absolutely. You would utilize the existing network. And when we talk about infrastructure, we would talk about tying in from those pipelines that exist, perhaps to local truck stops and gasoline stations.
11:10 a.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Is there an interest from traditional gas companies to sell natural gas?
11:10 a.m.
Vice-President, Corporate Supply Management, Special Projects, USA Division, EnCana Corporation
Yes, there is. We've met with virtually all the utilities in Canada, and they're all very keen on this idea.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions will be for SUMA in this round.
I truly do believe that our government has done a good job in balancing criteria and process versus getting money out the door with our Building Canada fund, and in fact I made an announcement, which Mr. Pacetti will be interested to know about, that 90% of funds have been committed.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
We know that all municipalities are not equal. There are small villages and towns and then large cities that are vying for these funds. How can the federal government improve our programs and access to those programs for well-staffed cities and single-employee villages alike?
11:10 a.m.
President, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association
Thank you very much, Ms. Block. I would like to first apologize that my colleague had to leave. He had a previous commitment.
Certainly I think there is considerable distress in some of the smaller communities, as I mentioned earlier, to try to come up with their third of the program. I can take you into numerous communities where the need is great and the dollars are few, so they just fall off the table.
I think the easiest way would be to look at the gas tax transfer model, where a per capita transfer would be made. In that instance, very similar to what the Province of Saskatchewan did a year ago with their enhancement program of $100 million, it was a single-page application and no need for a matching contribution.
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you very much.
Very quickly, to the urban municipalities, the request is for money to develop a strategy, not what comes out of the strategy. Am I reading that correctly?
11:10 a.m.
President, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association
Once again, there's a huge need, and we have communities that don't qualify for that eligibility because they don't have the--
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
I'm not talking about the infrastructure money—well, I guess it actually has to do with creating a strategy for long-term infrastructure development. But the money you're asking for in today's proposal is for an organization, or for groups to get together to create the strategy. Is that correct?
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
I have a question for EnCana. You talked about the environmental benefits of burning natural gas instead of regular gasoline. What's the difference in environmental impact between producing a litre of natural gas and producing a litre of gasoline? I'm talking on the production side, before the gas gets into an engine.
11:10 a.m.
Vice-President, Corporate Supply Management, Special Projects, USA Division, EnCana Corporation
It's less impactful to produce a litre of natural gas than it is to produce a litre of oil, which is turned into gasoline. One technology that I refer to is horizontal drilling—it's a footprint technology that allows you to drill 8 to 16 wells from one central location. So you'll build a location that might be two to four acres in size, and you might drill as many as 16 wells on that one site. It's the lowest full-cycle footprint we have found. We looked at all the different energies.
