Finance Committee on Nov. 1st, 2010

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Okay.

Mr. Knight, you rightfully point out the demographic challenges we're going to be facing moving forward, and I appreciate your recommendations about increasing participation rates among all groups.

You mentioned, at least in this document you provided to us, that “Tens of thousands of qualified students are turned away” in a given year at a time when we're trying to increase student participation rates among a whole group of individuals. You later recommend that we put more money into increasing the attendance of international students.

So how do we balance that? Do we want to have more domestic students who are not now participating—and yet you're calling for us to spend $22 million to invite more international students?

[James Knight]

Well, capacity limitations are a really big problem. Some provinces have turned away thousands and thousands of qualified students from colleges, because they are at capacity. The increase in enrollment this year was quite dramatic, and that's both a good thing and a bad thing. So capacity limitations are quite severe, and obviously that calls for more investment.

But on the international side, those students come with very big tuition fees attached to them—three, four, or five times what a Canadian student would pay—and that allows for capacity growth. There's an asset here. They pay fees that allow for the institutions to hire faculty, and maybe even expand capital equipment. So that's the inducement.

There's great pressure. The Government of Ontario admitted that it wants more international students, because they don't want to continue funding their post-secondary institutions at the same level. They see that as a real benefit for everyone.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

So you're saying that the more international students who come, the more spaces there will be for domestic students, if the government takes the revenue and translates it into more spaces?

[James Knight]

That's because the resources will allow for an expansion of capacity. I don't pretend this is going to be easy and there won't be tensions, but we have to go somewhere for support.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Do you know what percentage of international students stay in Canada after they finish their education?

[James Knight]

Well, that's the other side of the coin. With the new experience class for immigrants, they will have much more opportunity to remain in Canada, which does address the demographic challenges that we point out.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

So you don't have any percentages?

[Paul Brennan]

It varies depending on the levels. It's increasing, but it's somewhere around 20%.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

The other recommendation you make is to improve the credit transfer arrangements between universities and colleges and across jurisdictions, making it more efficient for students to find a pathway to graduation. I think that's a great point.

Is there a role for the federal government to play in those arrangements between universities and colleges and across jurisdictions?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Just a brief response, please.

[Paul Brennan]

Yes, I think there is a role to play in facilitating the dialogue between the provinces and the various jurisdictions to build those bridges and pathways, in the same way that in the red seal program, each province is responsible for the trades training and for accrediting their trades people. But the federal government, with the provinces, then developed a common red seal program that everybody then accessed, allowing the trades people to move from province to province with their accreditation and to get recognized. So that convening role of the federal government was critical.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

We'll go to Mr. Pacetti, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing.

I would first like to quickly address the representatives from the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision. I returned a copy of your document, so that it may appear in the official record, because for me personally, I generally find it easier to read documents in English. However, I noticed that the English version and French version are vastly different. I would like to perhaps discuss at least the first point on research and development, because I find that interesting. You say funding is needed for research and development in the audiovisual industry. That is not written anywhere in the English version of the document.

[Claire Samson]

I think we may have shed some light on the mystery. The French version that you have is indeed what we presented here this morning. If you look at the English version, it says: “2009 pre-budget consultations”; it is our document from last year.

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

Okay. We will try to get it translated. There is no problem as far as translators are concerned. They have more than 400 briefs to translate. I wanted this at least to be entered into the record.

As far as research and development is concerned, are you saying that companies that have turned to digital production are not eligible for subsidies? Is that what you are saying?

[Brigitte Doucet]

Companies that work in the audiovisual sector, movie and television producers that have to work on other platforms, are not eligible for now. This applies to people who development games, video games or other types of web sites, but it does not apply... I have gone over the programs and none apply to audiovisual production.

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

Okay. Is there a large percentage that is not eligible?

[Claire Samson]

Anything produced for new platforms that is a spinoff from a television show or a feature film, is not eligible for this funding.

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

Okay. Thank you.

Just quickly to the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association, I always get the cleanup. I always get to ask questions of whoever hasn't had a question, so it's going to be quite easy.

You're asking for $10 million. I know a couple of years ago when we were in a surplus, we were probably going to focus more on pharmacare and dental health and other areas where the federal government can help in terms of health issues. In your brief you're saying $10 million is going to go a long way or is going to help out. How do you get to that number of $10 million? That's the easy question.

I only have a limited amount of time, so if you're going to argue about who is going to go, I'll just move on.

[Palmer Nelson]

I just received figures that in terms of oral hygiene promotion and disease prevention limited to seniors, children, and low-income individuals, medicare could expect to pay $3.5 million. So Judy can explain where she got the $10 million figure.

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

But where will that savings come from? Will it be at the health services end or will it be in going less frequently to the dentist, at what stage, or is it throughout a lifetime?

[Palmer Nelson]

I believe it's at the health services end, yes.

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

Health services.

On page 4 of your brief you indicate,

Until this year, Canada had not collected oral health data for thirty years.

So the tough question is, how do you make that calculation if you haven't collected the data?

[Palmer Nelson]

The Canadian health measures survey has just been released with the oral health data. We're still looking for the data from the Inuit nations and the aboriginal peoples. That's going to come out in January 2011, so we can make more recommendations based on that.

We would like to see oral health surveyed every five years. We don't want to wait every 30 years.

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

In terms of setting up a national strategy, would the provincial governments, to your knowledge, be willing to participate in such an endeavour or such a proposal?