I'm Carol Wilding, and I'm the president and CEO of the Toronto Board of Trade. With me is Mr. Brian Zeiler-Kligman, our director of policy.
Thank you for the opportunity this afternoon.
As a quick background, founded in 1845, the Toronto Board of Trade is Canada's largest chamber of commerce, connecting 10,000 members and more than 200,000 business professionals and influencers throughout the Toronto region. We advance the success of our members in the entire region by facilitating opportunities for knowledge sharing, networking, business development, and city building. At the outset I want to emphasize that Canada's cities, particularly Toronto, are critical to our economic success.
Last year the Competition Policy Review Panel noted the importance of Canada's cities to our global competitiveness. As we look to strengthen the current economic recovery, the federal government needs to recognize and support Canada's cities as economic drivers for the entire country.
The board has three recommendations for the 2010 budget: first, the development of a national transit strategy; second, further assistance with programs and supports for integrating foreign-trained professionals; and third, coordinated federal and provincial green economy strategies.
Our first recommendation is the development of a national transit strategy. The board commends the significant contributions this government has made to Canada's public transit systems, investments that are unmatched in recent memory. The gas tax fund, which this government made permanent in 2007, is the first permanent federal transfer to municipalities for infrastructure investment. Substantial money has also been devoted to public transit under such programs as the Building Canada fund. Since 2007 over $2 billion has been committed to transit projects in the greater Toronto region alone. As a result of these actions, federal capital contributions for transit have gone from no funds in 2001 to nearly 25% of all capital contributions in 2007.
The board is encouraged that the federal government is investing in our transit system, but these capital contributions have come through one-off announcements rather than as part of any formal strategy. With the amounts currently being invested, the federal government is essentially spending close to what would be needed under a national transit strategy but without gaining the recognition for investments that would come from a clearly articulated strategy and without providing municipalities with certainty regarding the funding.
The board's proposal, set out in our submission, builds on the gas tax fund and it would be distributed based on population and ridership. The monetary request is based on the Canadian Urban Transit Association's calculations of needed investment in our transit system.
The board's second recommendation concerns the integration of foreign-trained professionals. Failure to integrate our skilled immigrants has economic impacts on the entire country. An RBC Financial Group study found that if immigrants had the same likelihood of employment at the same average income as native-born Canadians, personal income would be $13 billion higher and there would be almost 400,000 net new workers.
The federal government has recognized the need to be involved in this area. The Canada-Ontario immigration agreement is a landmark agreement. To date nearly one-third of the funds have not been spent, largely as a result of capacity constraints, with nearly half of the $920 million committed by the federal government to be flowed this year. The board urges that these remaining funds flow quickly and effectively.
The next Canada-Ontario immigration agreement should include timelines for spending funds and penalties for the failure to do so. It should also direct funds towards the creation of a suite of programs and support for employers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, for the recruitment and retention of foreign-trained professionals.
Finally, the green economy represents enormous opportunities for Canadian companies. We are moving to a lower-carbon world. Massive amounts will be spent worldwide in future years on green technologies and other innovative services, and we must seize the opportunities for Canada.
The federal and provincial governments should build on the tremendous synergy conveyed through their respective 2009 economic stimulus packages by exploring the advancement of coordinated legislative, regulatory, and fiscal policies to advance a green economy strategy. This recommendation emerged from the greater Toronto region economic summit, which was held by the board of trade last May and attended by over 250 delegates, including a number of federal officials, such as Senator Art Eggleton and Hon. Jim Flaherty.
That concludes our recommendations. We'd be happy to answer any questions.