Finance Committee on May 5th, 2010

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Are there significant minority shareholders in any of these companies?

[Allan MacGillivray]

I'm sorry, I can't speak to the private shareholders. These are private companies. As I say, I can speak to Telesat because he's spoken on the record.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

What did he say on the record? Who are the minority shareholders for Telesat?

[Allan MacGillivray]

Well, the two principal shareholders are Loral and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Canada Pension Plan and Loral?

[Allan MacGillivray]

Loral Skynet, which is out of the U.S., yes.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

That's a U.S.-based company.

[Allan MacGillivray]

That is correct.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

I have one comment, which I think Mr. Paillé and others have made over time. I don't profess any expertise in the telecommunications or industrial community. This is the kind of thing that should be looked at by the industry committee and dealt with, rather than coming before the finance committee.

I leave that as my comment.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Wallace, please.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Thank you.

I'm fortunate enough to be on the industry committee, and the gentleman from Telesat was in front of us this week explaining things.

Basically, John, the concept is that there are some growth opportunities if he's able to acquire partners, which he's not able to do at this point. They're a small player of the big four. He's number three, and he thinks there's some opportunity to grow. That's why he wants some flexibility.

We are studying it.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

What about the other three?

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

They're all foreigners. He's the biggest Canadian group. He has twelve satellites, and the others have many more.

Anyway, it was very good. It's in the blues. It's a very good piece from the industry committee this past week.

Mr. Chair, I know we're getting close to time here, and we have another section to go. My first suggestion was going to be to resume this committee meeting after votes, come back after votes and try to finish these last two sections tonight. I didn't seem to get too many takers on that.

I don't know what the answer is, but I'd be happy to share my five minutes with Mr. McCallum, because I know he wanted to talk about the issue of timing. Can I share my time with him?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Well, there's nobody on the list, so he can certainly go on it.

For members' information, we did invite witnesses for tomorrow's session, so if we don't finish today, the plan was to do this section and the other section on Tuesday and continue with witnesses on Wednesday and Thursday. But if the committee wants to give me some direction, that would be helpful.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I think Mr. McCallum had a concept earlier.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Can we hear Mr. MacGillivray before we get to that?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Are there any further questions for Mr. MacGillivray?

Thank you very much, Mr. MacGillivray. We appreciate you being here this afternoon.

We have one part left. I don't know if there are a lot of questions on that part....

There are a lot of questions on that part, okay. So we can either deal with it on May 11 or we can deal with it earlier than that.

Mr. McCallum.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

I don't have a strong view as to whether we finish with the officials tomorrow or next Tuesday. I think it has to be done at some point without cutting off the questions.

My thought was that if we had perhaps three-hour meetings instead of two-hour meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, we might be able to hear all of the witnesses from the Bloc and the NDP, and most of our witnesses. I think the Conservatives might be willing to cut theirs, and then we could perhaps vote on it on Thursday of next week. That was my thought.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

May I have a quick show of hands? Does the committee prefer to do part 24 tomorrow at the beginning, or on May 11?

[An hon. member]

I'd say tomorrow.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, we'll do it first thing tomorrow. Then we'll have witnesses after that.

Mr. Mulcair.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

I'll be brief. I'd just like to mention that the Canada Labour Congress would like to be heard. Our witness list was very short. These are very important social partners for all elected members. I am taking the liberty of suggesting that we invite its representatives.

Some aspects may concern the agricultural sector, and we have absolutely no one in that sector, no witnesses. The National Farmers Union could be an idea.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay. There are two more witnesses.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

I have one final suggestion. In fact, this could be at the same time as the Canada Labour Congress. I would ask that the Canadian Union of Postal Workers be added to the list if it isn't already on it.

It's on it already; that's perfect.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

But if we have the witnesses, you're okay with us doing clause-by-clause on May 13.