Evidence of meeting #15 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was transit.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Those doors have been opened for you, so you're actually taking advantage of those open doors.
President, Sellick Equipment Limited, Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Yes, we are.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Your company talked about the unfortunate situation of laying off 27 people. If we hadn't made these moves two years ago, how bad would the bleeding have been? Would it have been just 27, or would it have been more?
President, Sellick Equipment Limited, Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Fortunately, western Canada has been very good to us, as I mentioned, in the oil sands and in the potash mining, but actually housing starts have a lot to do with our industry. Basically the housing starts led to the layoffs.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
So it's tied more to the forestry sector that was still--
President, Sellick Equipment Limited, Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Right, exactly. The construction sector is actually the slow sector, and that's all geared to housing starts. Unless we see some improvement in housing starts, especially in the U.S., we're not going to get those 27 people back to work.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
So your business is tied to the forestry sector, it's fair to say.
President, Sellick Equipment Limited, Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Yes.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
There probably was nothing we could have done in that area, because it's tied to the U.S., like you said, that would have saved those jobs.
President, Sellick Equipment Limited, Association of Equipment Manufacturers
That's correct, exactly.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Okay.
Again, some parties are saying that we should increase our corporate tax rate by 2%, take that money and redistribute it back to the people who get laid off from raising the corporate tax rate. Would that be a fair statement to make in your sector?
President, Sellick Equipment Limited, Association of Equipment Manufacturers
That's a question I think I'd better refer to my colleague, Howard.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
He's referred it back to you, Mr. Mains. You've got about 40 seconds.
Canadian Public Policy Advisor, Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Thank you.
I think the philosophy of lower tax rates has been welcomed by not only members of AEM, but I'm sure also by member companies of the other associations represented here.
Conservative
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Mr. Westcott, I just have to say that the spirits industry must be the happiest industry around the table, most of the time anyway.
I guess I'm looking at what you see for investments happening in this sector now in Canada. Do you see it still moving forward, more investment?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Spirits Canada / Association of Canadian Distillers
No, frankly. We're not competitive. It's very difficult to attract investment to Canada. If you are in the whiskey business globally, the returns available in the scotch whiskey business, the bourbon business, and the Irish business are far greater than they are in Canada. So it's a struggle to get investment in to maintain the industry. The tax rate goes a long way to that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you.
I'll have to follow up on that, I'm afraid.
We'll go to Mr. Marston, please.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I want to welcome everybody today.
I'm going to try to be fairly quick.
Mr. Shaw, we hear you about the review of the codes. That's probably very timely. But one question that comes to mind with both you and Ms. Milner is what are the reserves of natural gas? What are the deposit reserves that are available to us?
Vice-President, Natural Gas Policy Development, Encana Corporation
As I indicated, from what we know now in terms of current demands, we have over 100 years supply of natural gas. If you start incenting more demand, you'll start incenting more exploration. With some of the finds that will probably even grow higher and higher.
NDP
Wayne Marston NDP Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Mr. Bowie, how long does it take to build one of the icebreakers, and what would you guess a one-unit cost would be?
President, Canadian Shipowners Association
I think the key point I was trying to make today, and Howard made earlier, is that you need a significant planning period, design period, specification tendering period, in order to get one of these icebreakers in the water. That's probably a three-year to four-year period before you get the icebreaker at the end.
What we're looking for.... There's nothing in the coast guard plan to replace those breakers—
President, Canadian Shipowners Association
--and there's nothing in the plan to—