Finance Committee on May 17th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Hoback, please.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

I have just a quick question. For a port of entry, if all of a sudden there was a fire at that facility and you had to relocate to a mobile facility or something, it would allow for that, correct?

Then, for example, you have the American customs basically looking at each other. If you had a situation like a flood, would you coordinate with American customs officials, to try to find a common area to move to so that you're both across from each other still?

[Andy Lalonde]

It's kind of interesting, because once we…. If we could relocate to the U.S.--is that the question?

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Yes.

[Andy Lalonde]

We would love to be able to do that. We don't have a means or an agreement to do that yet. In fact, that's what we are working on right now as part of the Beyond the Border action plan, the security and prosperity partnership. Negotiations will begin shortly with the United States so that we're able to do that at some point and establish a pre-clearance facility one day in the U.S.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

I think that's all the questions, Mr. Lalonde. Thank you so much for staying with us until near the bitter end here. We appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

[Andy Lalonde]

The last person standing is either good or bad.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We have one more.

[Andy Lalonde]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We will bring in division 30, the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, and we'll have Ms. Hemmings back before the committee.

Welcome back to the committee, Ms. Hemmings. Thank you for staying so late as well. We sincerely appreciate that and look forward to your giving us a brief overview of this change.

[Lynn Hemmings, Senior Chief, Payments, Payments and Pensions, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance]

Thank you very much.

This amendment stems from correspondence we received from the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations regarding their concern that the Air Canada pension plan solvency deficiency funding regulations and the Air Canada pension plan funding regulations, 2009, were made without proper statutory authority.

Subsections 39(2) and 39(3) of the Pension Benefits Standards Act allow regulations made under the act to apply generally to all pension plans or specifically to one or more pension plans, or to one or more classes of pension plans. These authorities came into force in 2010. Essentially, this amendment deems those two subsections of the Pension Benefits Standards Act to come into force prior to the making of the Air Canada regulations, thereby ensuring the validity of both those regulations.

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much for that.

We'll go to Mr. Marston, please.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I just want to be clear in what I'm hearing. You say the whole idea of this is to retroactively insert a law in where the courts or someone has suggested that it was not appropriate to do it?

[Lynn Hemmings]

No. It's to essentially ensure that there is statutory authority for those regulations. Those regulations are in force, and Air Canada has used the first set of regulations and is using the second set, so this essentially is just ensuring that there is proper statutory authority for those regulations.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

But retroactively.

[Lynn Hemmings]

That is correct.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Which, the way I'm hearing it, implies at least that the authority wasn't there at the time the provisions were put in place.

[Lynn Hemmings]

It's the scrutiny of regulations committee that is essentially making a housekeeping amendment to—

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Okay. That was my next question. What prompted this?

[Lynn Hemmings]

It was prompted by the Standing Joint Committee on the Scrutiny of Regulations.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

So it wasn't an outside source that caused it. It was internal housekeeping, then.

[Lynn Hemmings]

No. In reviewing regulations, they decided that it would be prudent to make this kind of amendment to the PBSA.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

[Lynn Hemmings]

You're welcome.