Finance Committee on Oct. 29th, 2009

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

However, not necessarily in an environmentally-friendly way.

[Pierre Boucher]

Look, we estimate that cement consumption will double within 25 years.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

All right.

However, as you indicated, in the end you do not wish to be constrained by greenhouse gas reductions, as planned in Canada.

[Pierre Boucher]

Not at all. What we are saying is that there is a global reduction plan and it is being communicated to all governments, including the federal government.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

However, you nonetheless do not want goods from countries such as China and India, who are exempted from the Kyoto Protocol, to enter Canada?

[Pierre Boucher]

What we are telling the government is that if it wants to benefit from this strategic commodity—for example, Venezuela just nationalized its cement industry; in India—

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

What Venezuela did has nothing to do with today's discussion.

[Pierre Boucher]

I believe that climate change is a global issue.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Agreed. Time is limited. Thank you, Mr. Boucher.

Mr. Dickie, I would like to thank you.

I have a brief question for Mr. Dickie. May I?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Yes, you have 30 seconds, Mr. Mulcair.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Dickie, you stated that there is a divergence in the tax treatment of owners and renters.

With regard to the tax credit in the budget for owners who do work on their own homes, for home renovations, would it have been somehow possible to extend this credit to renters, so that not just homeowners could benefit?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Just a brief response.

[John Dickie]

Absolutely, it should be extended to renters. I would say that the mechanism should extend it to the rental owners, because they will be the ones putting in the money to do the renovations, which then benefit the renters. The renters will have improved rental accommodation, which tends overall—albeit in a marginal way—to reduce the cost of rental accommodation in the marketplace. So I very much support an extension of the home renovation tax credit to the rental housing industry.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, thank you.

We'll go to Mr. Pacetti, please.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you to the witnesses for coming forward. It's been very interesting. It's always difficult for us to ask questions of everybody, so I will just ask a couple of quick questions.

I'll start with the fire chiefs and Mr. Simonds.

I was around when the bill was passed before this committee, but we also had a few problems with it. The major one was how were we going to track the volunteer hours. I think that was addressed, but I didn't see anything on that in your brief. How are we going to track the volunteer hours and make sure that volunteer firemen are not getting credit for playing cards at the fire station?

[Robert Simonds]

Thank you very much for your question. That's an absolutely valid question.

We have responded previously and clarified this. For example, there is a very stringent provision with respect to the recording of this information. In particular, at the municipal, village, and town level, but also at the level of the office of the fire marshall, and workplace health and safety, there are a number of....

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Could this could be addressed through a log-in system and be certified by somebody who—

[Robert Simonds]

Exactly. It's about having sufficient auditing in place to negate any of those types of—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

I just wanted to put that on the record. Thank you.

Mr. McKee, I'll ask you a quick question as well. In regard to your request, have you approached Health Canada, or even the CIHR, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research?

[Andrew McKee]

Absolutely. That's in the nature of our request. If you read our proposal, it actually funds a partnership between CIHR and us. So we have a memorandum of understanding with CIHR, and the funding could flow either through CIHR or directly to us.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

But what feedback have you had? Are they interested, or do they need more funding?

[Andrew McKee]

Of course they're interested: they signed the memorandum of understanding two years ago.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay, but is there enough funding there, or do they require more funding?

[Andrew McKee]

They require new funding to give effect to this as soon as possible.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

So you would ask us to funnel it through CIHR?