Evidence of meeting #52 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infrastructure.
A video is available from Parliament.
6:15 p.m.
President, C.S. Clark Consulting, As an Individual
I don't have a specific number, but yes.
6:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Okay.
I'm curious. How many budgets have you had a hand in crafting, would you say?
6:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
One minute.
Ms. Cook, I will go back to you.
I've been asking a lot of the witnesses who have appeared before this committee about our internal trading barriers. Our government is aggressively trying to break those down, and the Minister of Industry has been working very hard on that.
Could you discuss how important that would be for your sector to break down those interprovincial trade barriers?
6:15 p.m.
Director, Business and Economics, Chemistry Industry Association of Canada
There are many of them.
I think one of the key ones for us—and it again goes back to the discussion you've heard from other people on the panel before—is about skilled trades, and encouraging labour mobility within Canada as well.
Right now we have different apprenticeship rules from one province to the next. That restricts people from getting trained in one province and being able to move to where the next opportunity is. There are also things like transportation, which is extremely important for our industry, so different trucking regulations from one province to the next. There are different construction rules or standards. This can cause a significant obstacle to productivity.
6:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you very much, Mr. Adler.
I'm going to take the next round. Sometimes the committee lets me ask questions as the chair.
First, just briefly from Ms. Cook, I've supported the ACCA since 2007, as you likely know. It gets extended every two years for another two years. Your association and members often say we need a five-year timeline or even something longer.
I think you're actually on to something here, in the sense that we actually need a broad comparison between Canadian capital depreciation rates and American capital depreciation rates. That's what we need to get to rather than a two-year extension and almost doing accelerated capital cost. We need to actually compare the two countries' two different sets of rates and ensure that your members can be competitive on a case-by-case basis.
October 28th, 2014 / 6:20 p.m.
Director, Business and Economics, Chemistry Industry Association of Canada
We're in total agreement there. We just did a commission study. It was the first study done by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters last year.
6:20 p.m.
Director, Business and Economics, Chemistry Industry Association of Canada
Yes. We saw that we needed to take that next step and look at what you would need to look at if you wanted to consider a permanent treatment that would bring us to a level playing field. You do have to look at coverages and different classes as well. It's complicated.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Perhaps your recommendation is to have the Department of Finance do a comparison of the two countries and all the rates and publish it publicly.
6:20 p.m.
Director, Business and Economics, Chemistry Industry Association of Canada
We would support that, absolutely.
6:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
I appreciate that.
Mr. Clark, what years were you in Finance, was it from 1984 to...?
6:20 p.m.
A voice
You're going to date yourself.
6:20 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
6:20 p.m.
President, C.S. Clark Consulting, As an Individual
I think I started at Finance in 1978.
6:20 p.m.
President, C.S. Clark Consulting, As an Individual
Then I left for part of the 1980s, and then I was there until 2000.