Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm here today in my capacity as president of the Canadian Retail Building Supply Council, an umbrella organization comprising five of Canada's regional and provincial building supply associations. Our pre-budget submission is supported by the Canadian Hardware & Housewares Manufacturing Association. A letter to that effect is contained in our brief.
Together, the CRBSC and the CHHMA represent 2,300 companies that in 2008 employed 75,000 Canadians and generated some $83 billion in sales. Members include representatives of all major aspects of building materials, hardware, housewares, and lawn and garden product industries.
The contents of our submission reflect the views of 334 companies that participated in a survey in the summer. The prospects of the Canadian economy returning to growth this quarter or perhaps even in the third quarter are encouraging and would mean an end to the recession. The damage caused in the past year, however, will not soon fade away.
Within our sector of the economy, just consider these facts, all of which were obtained from current published Statistics Canada reports. Residential building permits for the first eight months of this year were worth almost $9.5 billion less than for the same period last year. Retail sales in building and outdoor home and supply stores in the first seven months of this year dropped $519 million from the same period last year. Wholesale sales of building materials were off almost $5.7 billion from the first seven months of 2008. There were 93,000 fewer construction employees in September 2009 than in September 2008, and 229,000 fewer manufacturing employees.
Budget 2009 announced four major programs to help Canadians acquire and improve their homes, all of which had a positive impact on the retail building supply sector. The home renovation tax credit was particularly beneficial. The standing committee asked what federal stimulus measures have been effective and the HRTC is definitely one of those ventures. Without it, the results for the housing market would have been significantly worse than those I pointed out to you.
Of our members, 86% of retailers and 87% of suppliers stated that the HRTC should be continued until the recession's impact on the Canadian business community has lessened significantly. Accordingly, we recommend that the home renovation tax credit be extended to February 1, 2011.
The standing committee asked what could be done to make stimulus measures more effective. EcoEnergy Retrofit and Energy Star are programs that are both designed to stimulate environmentally responsible behaviour. We've been struck this year with the contrast between the administrative burden placed on retail customers by the two environmental programs and the HRTC. That led CRBSC to ask whether retailers and suppliers felt the benefits under EcoEnergy Retrofit and Energy Star would be utilized more readily by consumers if they were offered a more user-friendly alternative, such as a tax credit modelled on the HRTC; 65% of retailers and 72% of their suppliers believe this would be the case, and that's what our brief recommends.
Our position paper reports that most respondents to our pre-budget survey favoured significant personal income tax relief to increased government spending. Therefore, our third recommendation advocates that the standing committee recognize the importance of broadly based and major personal income tax relief.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, and I look forward to your questions.