Finance Committee on Nov. 20th, 2012

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you. I am going to share my time with Mr. Mai and Mr. Marston, if we have time. We work as a team.

I just have one quick question.

Mr. Melhoff, one element of your brief intrigued me. Point 6 of the document that you submitted as part of the pre-budget consultations reads as follows:

Retain the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Credit program under the current guidelines and structure. It would be unconstitutional to implement a government selection process and deny eligibility for some businesses to take advantage of the tax credit program, possibly putting one industry or province at a disadvantage over another.

Could you elaborate on that? After all, the word “unconstitutional” has major repercussions.

[Jason Melhoff]

I wouldn't be able to comment on that right now. I apologize, I missed some of the translation there. But I would be happy to put together our exact policy that we have formulated on that, if I could submit that.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Okay.

Let us talk quickly about the tax credit. Is it your perception that it gives the government the power to pick winners and losers?

[Jason Melhoff]

Again, I would probably just have to defer that to our policy.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

My thanks to Mr. Caron for kindly agreeing to share his time.

Ms. Litzenberger, in your brief, you mentioned that the arts industry contributed $46 billion to the GDP in 2007. You also mentioned about 616,000 workers in 2003. You said that this number is still increasing. Perhaps you could share your opinion with us on this. Accepting that the funding investments currently being made by the government are insufficient, why do artists still live in reduced circumstances?

[Shannon Litzenberger]

As I was trying to explain, 30 years ago it was identified that the funds were insufficient to the council, and after that time the funds were further cut. From 1990 onwards we've been making progress towards recouping where we left off at the time that we said that the funds weren't enough. Of course, also during that time the field has exploded.

So we've done an amazing job in building a cultural infrastructure for Canada over 50 years, but without increased investment, it's a trade-off between whether we just sustain the traditions we've built or we invest in the future generations and a contemporary cultural expression for Canada.

I think this is a really pressing issue today, and the federal government has a role to play. I just want to say that this sector is very cognizant that it's not only the responsibility of the government, but it's a partnership between all of the new ways that we're thinking of working, the ways that we've been able to significantly leverage private sector...and we have. You'll see significant growth in terms of private investment in the arts, way more than governments in the last 20 years. I just want to say that government is part of the solution, and we need to step up because we are approaching a point where there's a whole generation of artists who are much more culturally diverse who don't have a voice.

Thank you.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Marston.

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

First of all, Ms. Bronson and Ms. Bird, your two predominant asks have reminded me of my time as a school board trustee in Hamilton. Children without food don't learn, and children without adequate day care are in the same position because they don't access early learning. So we are on the same page on this one.

Beyond that, if you can find the time here, do you have other measures that you might suggest? There's a growing income gap or inequality in our communities right now. Do you have suggestions beyond what you are already asking for, as to how the government could begin to address that?

[Diana Bronson]

Yes. Obviously there's a variety of measures that should be adopted in order to bring Canadians out of poverty, for lack of opportunity. There are many things I could talk about that are very much summarized in here, such as a guaranteed minimum annual revenue.

We also have somewhat of a crisis in the farming sector, and particularly for young farmers, older farmers, small farmers, organic farmers. It's very difficult to make a living, and those people need increased income supports.

We have found at Food Secure Canada some of the innovative types of distributing food, not only through a classical charitable model, as valuable as that may be, but engaging citizens through food, using food as a way to bring communities together, to bring different cultural communities together, to offer people employment in their communities, through organizations like the Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto—incredibly innovative policies that we're happy to support.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peggy Nash]

Thank you, Ms. Bronson.

We have maybe two minutes left. Mr. Miller, would you like to use those two minutes?

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Bronson, as a farmer, I'm certainly going to read your points. But agriculture has been pretty good in the last two or three years. I just want to point that out. There are problems in certain sectors.

Mr. Melhoff, I want to hear a little more about the hours of operation at the Wild Horse border crossing and why that is so important to your area. I guess it's not just Medicine Hat. I presume that it is a larger area in Alberta.

[Jason Melhoff]

That's correct. That would be for the province. What we're finding is that the Americans have invested in enhancing their border crossing there. We're finding that the big issue is that it's a crucial trade corridor that's not being utilized the way it should be. Truckers are finding other paths, through the Coutts border crossing. In turn, it's kind of pushing production back. We're not getting the traffic we could get through that area. We're missing out on a lot of trade, which has become a big issue for the area.

Looking at other provinces, they have multiple borders. In the event that we have a crisis and we lose the border crossing, which has happened twice this year, it really backs up the amount of trade going across.

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Bird, on your comments about child care and what have you, one word you used more than once was “obligation”.

I have two granddaughters, aged seven and four. My son and daughter-in-law have a business that keeps them very busy. My wife and I, along with my son and his wife, feel that we have an obligation to help out. Even though we lead busy lives, we try to take the girls as often as not, not just to help them out but because it's always nice to see them too, you know, and that kind of thing.

Would you not agree that parents have an obligation as well? Government does some things. We have the child tax credit, which allows my son and his wife to help ease the burden of child care costs. As far as that obligation, do you agree with that?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peggy Nash]

Mr. Miller, we're really out of time, so it must be a very brief answer.

[Shellie Bird]

We believe that all of society has obligations to young children. Yes, parents have obligations to young children.

In the province of B.C., the cost for a toddler space, for a two-year-old, is $1,900 a month. In the province of Ontario, the cost of a toddler space is $1,600 a month. One hundred dollars a month doesn't go very far in supporting families to pay for child care.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peggy Nash]

Thank you very much.

I apologize to the witnesses.

I remind the committee members that the buses will be waiting outside. Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.