Finance Committee on Oct. 20th, 2014

[David McKenna]

Sure.

I don't have the exact details. We can get them for you. We are one of the most expensive destinations to travel to because of fuel taxes, the taxation on our airfare, and largely the operating costs at the airports. That is something that we need to work on.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Nathan Cullen]

Thank you, Mr. McKenna and Mr. Brison.

Mr. Allen, you have up to seven minutes, please.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you to our witnesses for being here.

I'd like to start with Mr. Joanis. I have a quick question following up on the question asked by Mr. Keddy a minute ago.

I think one of the statements you made, although I won't put words in your mouth, was that the infrastructure projects should be prioritized based on economics. As Mr. Keddy correctly pointed out, there is that intangible piece where, if you don't have facilities in your community, you can't attract young families and the businesses to attract people.

Are you thinking of other things in your model to make sure that you equalize some of this? This is just pure economics.

[Dr. Marcelin Joanis]

There is a short answer to your question.

A good economic cost-benefit analysis goes beyond the financial or economic aspect in the general sense. It takes into account both tangible and intangible factors. It is difficult, but not impossible, to quantify those things. Methods are available.

I think a project whose benefits trump the costs can have a significant intangible aspect, as long as that aspect can be analyzed or quantified.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Cobden, you talked about $3.2 billion in insurance losses. The Saint John River runs through a lot of the riding that I represent. We've had a number of floods and very traumatic events for some of the communities along the river, whether it be ice damage or whether it be other types of things.

With that in mind, to your point, Mr. Orb, and I tend to agree with you, there's the $200 million we have for disaster mitigation, but when you spread that across all the provinces, it really doesn't go a long way to doing projects. One of the points you made in your argument was that it should be used for research and things like that. Can you talk about the status, and then perhaps the people from Canadian Climate Forum can as well, of flood plain mapping in Canada?

[Catherine Cobden]

Maybe Dawn, do you have something to...?

This is where being a new board member of the Canadian Climate Forum is—

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Maybe in the interim, Mr. Orb, can you tell us what the status is of flood plain mapping in your province?

[Ray Orb]

Honestly, I wouldn't be able to answer that. I think we would have to go back and research that. I think we're asking to do it project by project.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Okay.

[Catherine Cobden]

My expert is telling me that it is actually quite out of date and needs to be updated, Mr. Allen.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

That's something where we should be looking at these funds and providing the funds to be able to do that, because it could end up alleviating a lot of our problems in terms of disaster mitigation.

[Catherine Cobden]

Those are the types of things to figure out, right? Where can we put in some investment that helps us adapt? That's the thing; adaptation is a critical part of the future piece.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Now, the infrastructure program, the gas tax, and other programs have been expanded some to allow for disaster projects.

Mr. Orb, for your organization, do you have an estimate in terms of the amount for disaster mitigation that you will have to spend over the next 5 or 10 years?

[Ray Orb]

We haven't done an estimate on that, I think because it's a moving target. To be honest with you, I'm sure we could use the $200 million in Saskatchewan, but we realize that wouldn't happen. I would think that the prairie provinces would obviously need quite a chunk of that money.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

I think I could spend about $15 million or $20 million in my riding tomorrow, too, if I had to.

Mr. McKenna, I'd like to go to you and talk a bit about the matching dollars that you're talking about on tourism. Is that all actual hard dollars or does that include in-kind contributions from the industry as well?

[David McKenna]

What we're talking about in this proposal is hard dollars. We're proposing that they be channelled through the CTC, which is an ongoing mechanism for us, and it would be pure industry as well as some of the supporting associations, the DMOs and the PMOs.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Okay.

In your numbers, you talk about 5,000 additional jobs that would be created as part of this effort. What percentage of those are full-time jobs and what percentage are seasonal?

[David McKenna]

I do not have that data.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Could you provide that for the committee?

[David McKenna]

We can provide that for the committee, absolutely.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

It would be wonderful if you could do that. That would be great.

On the incremental revenue of $1.4 billion, how did that number come up? Is that just the additional incremental visitors multiplied by the $1,500 or $1,600 in additional spending by each of those?

[David McKenna]

Yes, it is.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Okay. Thank you.

[David McKenna]

I'm checking my sources.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

That's always good. I don't have a problem with that at all.