Evidence of meeting #81 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was investments.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Ultimately, as it gets closer to the $500 million, is it going to be taking an ever-increasing percentage of the allocation?
Coordinator, Kamloops Homelessness Action Plan
No, it would definitely be a limited tax incentive with a ceiling in place, as it is in the U.S. model.
The key piece that would make it successful in Canada is the provincial flexibility. While the federal government would provide that tax incentive, the provinces would have a lot of flexibility in how they would distribute those credits and how they would administer the RFP to the developers and the syndicator. They'd have lots of flexibility in how they match or don't match that tax credit. It could grow in some really interesting ways in the provinces most in need.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you.
In summary, what you are trying to do is take existing support and create a new model in terms of how we use existing support, so we're not talking about new government expenditures.
What do you see as possible flaws in doing this, or as issues or concerns?
Coordinator, Kamloops Homelessness Action Plan
The main thing is starting up and getting people interested in purchasing it as an investment. There would be some real legwork on the part of the syndicators, most likely in getting people to buy in and purchase the credits. As long as that PR campaign is in place, I don't see any major challenges.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
I often have significant debates across the floor in terms of strategies and what's being done or not being done. If you look at the community that you are living in, in terms of recent investments, has the situation changed in terms of the options available over the last few years with the expenditures we have made?
Coordinator, Kamloops Homelessness Action Plan
Definitely. The homelessness partnering strategy funds that have been distributed across Canada have made a huge difference, absolutely. Most of those dollars are going to what we visualize as the far left end of the spectrum, where people are coming right off the streets. People who are street-entrenched are getting into shelters, possibly into transitional housing. That's absolutely valid and necessary.
We also see this gap in the rental area that isn't being addressed through the HPS initiative or through the CMHC initiatives, either the affordable housing initiative or the home ownership strategies. While the expenditures have been valuable and effective, we need different answers as well.
October 23rd, 2012 / 4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you, Ms. McLeod.
I'll point out to members that the study referenced is available on the C.D. Howe Institute website.
We'll go to Mr. Brison for a five-minute round, please.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks to each of you for edifying us today on important issues and decisions.
I would like to start with Ms. Eng, from CARP.
Having the caregiver tax credit as a non-refundable tax credit effectively excludes the lowest-income Canadians, people who don't make enough, so you're suggesting making that fully refundable. Have you calculated approximately how many Canadians would benefit from that change?
Vice-President, Advocacy, Canadian Association of Retired Persons
Yes. At this point, according to Statistics Canada, approximately three million Canadians provide some care for an older person. It's also estimated that some 25% of that number are people who would be considered to provide heavy care; they would be the kind of people who would have to cut back their hours of work or quit their jobs altogether to provide the care. Those would be the people we would concern ourselves with the most, the people who would not be able to have enough income to take advantage of the tax credit; indeed, even if this $300 tax credit were made refundable, it would be insufficient.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Thank you.
On the issue of the OAS, 40% of the people collecting OAS make less than $20,000 a year, and 53% make less than $25,000, so I agree with you that it's a regressive decision. If there were an issue around sustainability, there would be more progressive ways to approach it, including clawbacks.
We proposed a supplementary voluntary CPP so that people would have access to a well-managed, low-fee structure and a diversified Canada Pension investment pool, and we proposed having it voluntary so that people could decide how much they would contribute.
Do you think that would be, in addition to PRPPs, an improvement in the choices for our future retirees?
Vice-President, Advocacy, Canadian Association of Retired Persons
Absolutely. There is a need for any vehicle that gets more people out there saving for their own retirement. As well, after people have saved it and not spent it, their money has to earn enough to keep them in retirement. The CPP does that exceedingly well for a number of reasons, not the least of which is pooling the risk and the investment management expertise.
We have tested our members' response to all of this. In addition to having those as advantages, which the PRPP suggests that it does, the PRPP does not have defined benefits. Recently we questioned our members, and they found that the employer contribution aspect of CPP was much more important than all the rest combined. In that case, once it was made voluntary that once you enrolled there would be an employer contribution, then you would have a saleable option.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Thank you very much.
Mr. Hayos, I was looking at some of your proposed changes, and I thought to myself that you're almost reaching an overall tax reform package. We haven't had a tax reform package or a real study of the income tax system of Canada since the Carter commission over 40 years ago.
Do you think we should have a thorough study or expert panel on reforming our personal income tax system in Canada?
Vice-President, Taxation, Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
Yes, I do, and I think that's why I was suggesting this sort of two-stage approach. I think that there are things we can do with the existing tax system to tweak it and improve it in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness, but a long-term improvement to the tax system requires a detailed study, and we'll have lots of input from a lot of different stakeholders.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Should it be limited to the personal tax system, or should it be overall taxation, including some of the changes, for instance, on making accelerated capital costs allowance permanent, the GST, or consumption taxes? Should it be an overall?
Vice-President, Taxation, Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
It should be an overall review. I think there should be a priority in terms of some of the areas they are focusing on, but absolutely, it should be overall.
Conservative
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
On ACTRA's point of leveraging on the domestic making of film and television in Canada, does that also help create an infrastructure for the Hollywood North type of business, so that there's actually an extra benefit?
National Councillor, Actor, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists
Yes, absolutely, because we have a very skilled and highly trained industry in Canada, which would not be nearly the size it is if we weren't providing services for not just Hollywood North but also European productions and Bollywood productions. We're getting all kinds of international activity here, but if we don't have the infrastructure, well....
An example that doesn't touch us is that Saskatchewan's cutting their credits. Their entire industry evaporated in a matter of weeks, so without that kind of infrastructure in place, it's not going to work.
Thank you for the question.
Conservative
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Thank you, Chair.
Thanks to all the witnesses for being here this afternoon.
I think I'm going to talk to you, Mr. Blake. I'd like to talk to all of you, but I only get five minutes.
You brought out some interesting ideas that I want to address with you a little bit, but before I get started, I want to commend you. I was reading your biography this morning. It's nice to see somebody giving back to their sector, as you're giving back through education and training. I want to commend you for doing that. I think it's a good example for more Canadians: to not only take from the sector but give something back. I want to commend you on that.
The Conservative government has been very active in the arts. It's been very supportive of the arts and culture. In fact, we've increased the funding for the Canada Council for the Arts by 20%, to $180 million.
Compare this with other places around the world. For example, in the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts runs on less money now than it did 20 years ago. The State of Michigan, for example, had an 80% reduction in the budget for culture. If you go across to England, funding was cut by 30%. If you turn to Australia, the budget for the Australian arts council was only $163 million last year; Canada's is $180 million.
I know you talked about returning funding to CBC and about increasing spending. I'd love to do it. I don't think there's anybody around this table who would not agree with you. We'd like to do that in a perfect world, but we're not in a perfect world; we're in a world in which you have this thing called a deficit over our heads. We need to get that under control, so we have to be responsible.
Therefore, I'm curious about priorities. When we look at CBC versus something like, for example, the Canada Council for the Arts, should we be redirecting some of that increase to the council towards CBC/Radio-Canada?
Again, if we have one dollar to spend, where's the best place to put it? Do we put it into the delivery of Canadian programs or do we put it into increasing the content of Canadian programs?
National Councillor, Actor, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists
I think anything that puts more Canadian content on available screens, in the case of the industry I'm speaking for now—the recorded English-language industry—is a positive thing. It becomes a little bit of lifeboat ethics, like being asked who we are going to push overboard to save our particular programs. I wouldn't want to say cut this to save that.
Content creation is an investment, not a cost. We sell it internationally and we bring in a lot of money, never mind the vision and the view of Canada. It's a window into Canada that is priceless. We are seen around the world as what we are and what we can be, and that's a positive thing. You can't put a price tag on it.
In terms of getting work out there, I would say that creation is the area that really needs it. As I said, it's an investment. It's not paying to keep something going; it's paying to get more money back, on a fairly large scale.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
I agree.
When we look at Telefilm Canada, for example, their budget is approximately $110 million, so they have a substantial number of dollars just for the creation of new productions. I think $73 million is allocated for the development and production, and approximately another $25 million, give or take some change, is meant for promotion and marketing of Canadian products around the world.
Do you find problems in getting access to delivery for Canadian content? For example, you have the CBC, which used to be the main deliverer of Canadian content—that would have been in the 1960s and 1970s—but now, when you look at all the channels on the networks that we have on any of the cable companies, are you getting fair access, whether on Showcase or other channels like that? What are your members saying about that? Do they feel they still need to have one mechanism to get their content on TV?
National Councillor, Actor, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists
Well, obviously it is a brave new world. It's a multi-channel universe, and there's more room now, but there's also fragmentation. I'm old enough to remember when CBC broadcast English and French together, so I may not be a good example. I loved that, and it's one of the reasons I became bilingual as an anglo growing up in Ottawa.
We need guarantees not just of Canadian content but of Canadian content that is on when Canadians can see it and share it, and that's not happening now—
National Councillor, Actor, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists
We've lost our major series. Some have come back, but we're still down about a dozen—