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.
President, C.S. Clark Consulting, As an Individual
Yes, I think so. We call those our rules of thumb. In fact, in the budget you can find rules of thumb for what would happen if nominal GNP fell by...or real GDP fell by, inflation.... There are those rules of thumb that we use—
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
But you would recommend this simply because of the importance of energy prices to the federal treasury, not necessarily the global risks in volatility.
October 28th, 2014 / 5:35 p.m.
President, C.S. Clark Consulting, As an Individual
To our economy and to the federal treasury.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
You made somewhat of a harsh criticism here for the government to consider reviewing its tax changes, as they don't stimulate the economy. What specific tax changes the government is contemplating would you seek to reconsider?
President, C.S. Clark Consulting, As an Individual
I think of the circumstances that we've talked about. The primary focus of our fiscal plan right now should be on strengthening growth and job creation going forward. So I would say that when you look at extending the tax credit for fitness, any of that business, including splitting income for families, I don't see any of that contributing to economic growth or job creation.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Again, just to back up for a moment, when talking about the current situation that we're in, with global numbers coming in lower and inconsistently for Canada, the IMF has re-evaluated almost at every quarter and downgraded Canada's growth projection. What is your current opinion of the state of Canada's recovery since the recession? Are we in a place of flatness? Is it a potential that's about to come forward and create much more in the way of job creation?
President, C.S. Clark Consulting, As an Individual
I think that if you look since 2010, the 2010 growth was very strong in Canada because of the temporary stimulus that was being put in, but if you go from then on, annual growth has fallen for every year, so has employment growth, so there is a risk and it's a global risk and a domestic risk that we are entering over the next five years. Our potential growth has gone down to 2% a year from 3% a year. I think that's a challenge for us to both strengthen that and get some demand in this economy, which has been lacking.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Very quickly, Mr. Zizys—I'm going to pronounce your name incorrectly—you talked about raising employer ambition. Can you expand upon what that means? I have not come across that term before.
Metcalf Fellow, Metcalf Foundation
What it means is that we need to encourage more investment in workforce development in the workplace.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you, Mr. Cullen.
We'll go to Mr. Keddy now, please, for seven minutes.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to our witnesses.
This is for Victoria Lennox at Startup Canada. Those are impressive numbers. You were founded in 2012 and you've raised $25 million. Congratulations.
I have a couple of questions. One of your suggestions is the one-time investment of $15 million over a three-year period. I'm expecting that your intention would be for Startup Canada to match that.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada
We will absolutely leverage our private sector investments to match the funding that we're soliciting. A large portion of the funding is to install the Startup Canada community connect points across Canada and, once established, then we can leverage that infrastructure to add value to our private sector partners.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
But at the end of the day you would be putting $15 million up to match the government. Would the 1,000 start-up points across Canada be all online?
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada
Think of the physical infrastructures as kiosks, so you walk up to a kiosk. This is particularly relevant in rural communities and northern communities where there aren't government services to the same extent as urban communities. To have that physical Cisco view access point so that entrepreneurs in Nunavut can access the resources that are being put forth by MaRS Discovery District in Toronto becomes very powerful.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
I just want to be clear. Of the 1,000 community connect points, would some of them be actual physical connection points where someone would walk into an office, whether that's rendered from a community centre or whatever?
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada
Currently, we have 400 community connect points, real people on the ground across Canada. We want to expand that beyond where we're currently present, especially to smaller communities.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
At the end of the three-year period, would continued funding and financing come from Startup Canada, come from the folks, the entrepreneurs who actually were mentored and maybe got a start there?
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada
Exactly. Some of our patrons include Brett Wilson, former dragon on the Dragons' Den, and Dani Reiss, the founder of Canada Goose. This has so far been built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, so we want that to continue, but we also seek global urgency to move faster.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Okay. Good for you. That's quite impressive.
Ms. Kozhaya, I have a couple of points. You're asking for some, I would say, balanced and strategic use of future budget surpluses, but you're also talking about spending these surpluses. To go to Mr. Clark's comments earlier about prudent investments, because we probably will be looking at some periods of modest growth, would you only suggest that in the case of surplus or are you suggesting that whether we have surplus or not?
Vice-President of Research and Chief Economist, Quebec Employers' Council
Regarding infrastructure? Sorry, the question is...?
I guess in the case you have a surplus, yes, my suggestions—
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Exactly. The other issue becomes how you maintain a surplus if you're continuing to reduce the corporate and personal tax burden. We've got the best corporate tax rate in the G-7. We've got a very reasonable personal income tax rate. Do you think there's a lot more room there for lowering taxes?