Finance Committee on May 17th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Ms. Nash.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

I'll ask what prompted this change. Has there been discussion with the affected unions?

[Alwyn Child]

The change was prompted by the fact that 60% of the claims are against crown corporations. And 60% of that 60% are claims against one crown corporation. They are largely tasked with dog bites, and very often the employer would want to pursue the homeowner rather than the federal government. There are administrative costs to our doing it and quite often it's a very small amount. So it's essentially to save money as part of the deficit reduction action plan. It's not an awful lot of money, but there are nonetheless some savings.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

So this is someone who would be responsible for making his own claim against a third party?

[Alwyn Child]

The employee can claim the benefits under the Government Employees Compensation Act. In doing so, the claim is subrogated to the government. This is proposing that it be subrogated to the crown corporation. The other option is for the employee to refuse the benefit and sue the homeowner himself. That's the change.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Okay, I understand.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

I have Mr. Brison on the list.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Did you say primarily...dog bites?

[Alwyn Child]

Well, I gave that as an example, because we see those quite often.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

So a lot of cases of postal—

[Alwyn Child]

That's right. Exactly.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Some of us who have knocked on doors in elections have sustained dog bites as well, so I don't know whether it would apply to us or not.

[Alwyn Child]

It applies simply to public servants and employees of crown corporations and other agencies. I'm not quite sure if you fit into one of those.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I think there are a lot of Conservative dogs in Nova Scotia.

[Voice]

Oh, oh!

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

I've dealt with a lot of vicious Conservative animals over the years.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Rabid, really. Pit bulls, actually.

No, a weasel is not a dog, Shelley, I'm sorry.

What's the dollar figure involved in this?

[Alwyn Child]

The overall dollar figure to us is about $260,000. Those are our costs. I don't know what the overall cost is, but it would range from very small amounts to some more significant ones. This covers fatalities, as you can well imagine, so it varies considerably. I don't know what the overall number would be. If the committee wishes, we can get that to you.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

For crown corporations, is this an improvement from a crown corporation governance perspective?

[Alwyn Child]

Yes.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much, Mr. Child, for being with us here this evening and for responding to our questions.

[Alwyn Child]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We'll move on to division 21, the International Development Research Centre Act, on page 299.

Welcome to the committee, Ms. Nicholson. If you want to give us a brief overview of these sections, we'd appreciate it. Then we'll have questions from members.