Evidence of meeting #8 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Urban Transit Association
In our analytical report, we listed some of the projects that were announced. We have also prepared an update to this report. Projects have been carried out in Windsor, in Quebec City, in Gatineau, in British Columbia in particular and in Edmonton. So then, the funds have been spent.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Between $400 million and $500 million in funding was announced for public transit initiatives across the country. Take, for example, my home town of Montreal. According to your list of priorities, $1.5 billion is being sought for public transit. However, there is no mention at all of the metro station that will be located in my riding.
The amount should be closer to $2 billion. Furthermore, the Montreal Regional Network could boost this amount by $300 million or $400 million. I don't see how we can even begin to make a dent in these priorities.
Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Urban Transit Association
You may be right about that. Funding requirements totalled $40.1 billion in 2008. This is a list of projects that could be ready to go tomorrow morning and be completed by 2010. You are quite right to say that this list of projects is not all-inclusive. We have asked transportation networks to identify some short-term projects.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Antunes, I understand the recovery seems to be dependent on the success of the economic stimulus package, but I'm having difficulty understanding the rate of growth we're expecting. Whether it happens at the end of 2009 or 2010, it's the percentage I'm having trouble with. Depending on which economist you speak to, there are two or three numbers, and they're all over the place. It's like there are three sides to every story.
Director of National and Provincial Forecast, Conference Board of Canada
Sure. The problem is that by the time any of this money gets into the economy we're looking at perhaps the second quarter to the second half of 2009. So when you look at the 1.3% I was mentioning, you have to spread it over that period. The second component is whether we can get all of that in as quickly as possible.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
But what you were saying is if the economic stimulus package does work, the growth will be 3%.
Director of National and Provincial Forecast, Conference Board of Canada
Not this year, I think.
Conservative
Bloc
Robert Carrier Bloc Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to welcome our witnesses here. I was touched by the presentations of the witnesses representing workers experiencing some hardships, notably those of Mr. Céré and Mr. Georgetti.
I agree with them that those most in need of government incentives and assistance are the people who are losing their jobs and are being treated unfairly at this time.
My question is for Mr. Céré and Mr. Georgetti. TheMinister of Financemaintains that he consulted with members of the public, but were you at least consulted before he drafted his budget?
As you know, the Liberal Party has announced that it will support this budget, despite having some questions and many reservations. How do you feel about our democratic system, when one party bows to a minority government simply because it does not want to defeat it and create additional election or organization problems for itself? What do you see in store for the future, given that these two parties have agreed on a budget that fails to meet the needs of the people?
I would also like to include a third person, Ms. Byers, in the discussion of pay equity. The measures proposed in the bill would deprive women of their legitimate rights to equal pay for work of equal value.
So then, how do you feel about our fine system of democracy?
Spokeperson, Conseil national des chômeurs et chômeuses
We were not consulted by Minister Flaherty, but the FTQ was and it passed along information to us. Some pre-budget consultations were held. Minister Flaherty came to Montreal in early January and with him were some of Quebec's most important business leaders. An advisor to a union executive was present. I believe he was the only union representative on hand.
Minister Flaherty unveiled his tax reduction proposal and other measures. Overall, the business leaders told him that they had never asked for theses measures, that this was not what they wanted. The FTQ stressed the employment insurance program and the need to enhance and improve access to benefits. Many of the business leaders in attendance supported the union's proposals. Of course, our association was not consulted. If we had been consulted, we too would have stressed the point that we are making here today about access to employment insurance.
You were wondering if we felt that our hands were tied somewhat because of this minority government that enjoys what amounts to a veto right, in light of the royal assent provision. Indeed, the opposition, even if it forms a majority, can push bills through to third reading stage, as we have often seen happen, only to have them suddenly fall by the wayside because of a minority government's veto right.
Let me get sidetracked for a moment and speak to Mr. Mulcair. We have gone public with our position and signed articles and letters which have been printed in the newspapers, under the caption “Bring Back The Conservatives In Opposition“. Our position is fairly clear.
You are responsible, consenting adults. I'll leave it up to you to play the parliamentary game, if you must. And, I am not using the word “game“ negatively here.
One thing is clear, and that is our goal to restore the employment insurance system. To accomplish this feat, we need a majority government. Whether the government is defeated now or later, we need to focus our attention and energy every day on these timely social issues.
President, Canadian Labour Congress
Let me be clear. The only two labour groups who were consulted after the economic update and before the budget were the FTQ and the CLC, for a total of 58 minutes. That's the only worker consultation that happened. The only time we were consulted was when they thought their jobs were at risk.
I wish everyone would stop posturing and take care of the honest, hard-working Canadians who have been affected negatively by this crisis—and they are the unemployed. All of the requests that we have made to modify and enhance the employment insurance system cost less than the home improvement program this government has put in place. That's the equivalent.
If you got down to doing that, we would actually applaud this budget and say you looked after the people who deserve to be looked after, the Canadian taxpayers, who, through no fault of their own, became victims of this crisis.
Conservative
February 23rd, 2009 / 5:50 p.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Labour Congress
This is typical: pay equity issues get this much time, while all the other important issues—
Conservative
Vice-President, Canadian Labour Congress
I just want to put out here that this is a huge, huge attack on people's ability to use the Human Rights Commission to advance their economic equality, and this isn't about helping anybody in terms of the current economic crisis. This is in fact about hurting people and this is about women who put their money in the communities, who spend their money where they live and work, and then don't have access to the Human Rights Commission to advance their wages, even over a long period of time. And that's an absolutely critical issue.
This is not about pay equity; this is about pay inequity, and that's exactly what's going to happen to women's wages in the federal sector.
Conservative
Daryl Kramp Conservative Prince Edward—Hastings, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have two quick questions, and if there's time left over I'll share it with my colleague. I have one question for Mr. Knight and one for Mr. Alvarez.
Mr. Knight, I was really interested in your proposal about the possible use of 5% of the R and D allotment. Certainly I've seen this take place at the community college level, and I can even tell you personally of several examples of R and D collaboration, and even incubation with independents, as well as various sources. Could you just elaborate a bit more on your initial comments on that? Potentially, I ask you to give some serious thought to making a formal proposal and bringing it forward, because I think it's an idea that's well worth consideration.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
Thanks for that support.
As you know, there's a vast amount of discovery research in universities, which is really where we spend our money. A lot of it is pretty esoteric. It's unrelated to the short-term economy, at any rate. We see a real opportunity to reinforce these relationships between small businesses and colleges, which are already quite active. In fact, some colleges have substantial applied research funding through private sector contributions. But there needs to be a public sector support to this, because in fact college instructors are not there for the purpose of conducting advanced research. They're there to teach. When you put them on a project, you pull them out of teaching, and there needs to be some way of ensuring that we can do the teaching while supporting the SMEs, which create most of the jobs in the country and which we depend on for economic growth.
Conservative
Daryl Kramp Conservative Prince Edward—Hastings, ON
Okay. Thank you very much.
Mr. Alvarez, I take a look at the dramatic escalation in health care cost: back in 1975, roughly $300 per person, give or take a little; now, close to over $3,000 per person. It's exponential growth. Then I listened to the statistics that your organization, Infoway, has been able to determine in terms of return on investment, patient treatment, dollars, controlling costs, and creating jobs, and I flip that around and say that's fine, but maybe 25% to 30% of this country doesn't even have access to broadband and isn't even connected. We've obviously made a significant investment in this budget to do just that. But assuming that goes forward, and we finally have a lot of these rural areas connected, how quickly and what impact do you believe Canada Health Infoway could have on those rural areas?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
Thank you for that question.
Actually, we're already having a significant impact on those areas. For example, 80% of Canadians now don't have an X-ray film any more. These are now digitized, which means that wherever the X-ray film is taken and digitized, it can be read from everywhere else. We now have 40% of our radiologists providing access to remote areas, which has never happened before and is very necessary. What that means is where they don't have a radiologist or a specialist in a rural area, basically not only can it provide efficiencies but you don't have to move the patient, and a diagnosis can be made a lot more quickly. That, together with the aspects of telehealth, which are now very prevalent certainly from our territories to the south, we've made enormous progress in that area.
Health care is Canada's largest information-intensive industry. It's three times the size of the Royal Bank of Canada. Yet when you think about the technology applied to it, it's been incredibly small. It's still a paper-based system, and paper is not only inefficient, quite frankly it's downright dangerous and it actually kills.
