It's $90 million, for the first portion.
Evidence of meeting #178 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was support.
Evidence of meeting #178 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was support.
11:25 a.m.
Director, Western Canadian Short Line Railway Association
It's $90 million, for the first portion.
11:25 a.m.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
Right.
Can you tell me first a little bit about what you see the main asks as being able to accomplish, from a movement-of-goods perspective?
11:25 a.m.
Perry Pellerin President, Western Canadian Short Line Railway Association
What we need to do.... As Allison mentioned, when we took over these short-lines they were in disrepair. Now we need to come up with a program to give our shippers confidence that we'll be there forever. This one-time shot will bring our lines back up to acceptable condition, whereby we can do an acceptable speed and appear to be around forever. Nobody's going to invest in a business on our line and have as their first concern whether we're going to be here next week.
We need this shot to get that standard back up. If we're able to do it, then I think that, as Allison mentioned, our long-term.... We have some very good operators. It's just that we need to bring in confidence from future customers that we'll be there to supply service.
In fact, we supply better service than the class 1 railroads. We just have to convince them to get on our line.
11:25 a.m.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
I noticed something about 75 crossings.
Living in a rural riding, I will tell you that those of us living in rural ridings would like a lot of crossings to be fixed. That's another story.
11:25 a.m.
President, Western Canadian Short Line Railway Association
The interesting part of that is the fact—Allison mentioned crossings—that we were successful in a couple of them, but the funding was only half. To put signals or that type of thing at a crossing costs about $250,000. We'd have to come up with $125,000. We don't have enough pop bottles to do that. There's just no way. As nice as that sounded, it's not realistic. We can't do it.
11:25 a.m.
Northumberland—Peterborough South, Lib.
Now I'll come to my second question, concerning the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service, STARS.
It's very impressive work that you do, and I can't imagine in the future that there's going to be less need. You talked about a number of the significant events that are happening because of climate change. We know we're going to have more forest fires, more floods and a number of things. Thank you for the work you do in your organization.
What does the one-time capital investment of $117 million look like in several perspectives: what does it buy, what's the total package and who else is contributing to it?
11:25 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS)
Thank you for the question.
The $117 million actually purchases all nine aircraft—that's what it buys—servicing from the Manitoba-Ontario border through into British Columbia to Fernie and up to the Fort St. John area.
As I said, the three provincial governments, all in, provide about 44% of our operating funding.
11:30 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS)
We've gone to major corporations, starting in Alberta primarily, with huge support from oil and gas.
Part of that has been that we are part of their emergency net. Think about mining, such as potash in Saskatchewan, and big oil and gas camps. When they're that far removed from major centres, we're part of their emergency response.
In fact, it's an economic stimulus. They actually pay us to monitor their sites and their people. We have GPS coordinates showing where all their employees are working, for example. They have been a huge funder.
What we heard when we went out and started talking about the replacement of this fleet.... We've been flying this fleet for almost 34 years, and the planes are at their end of life. We think this is another 30-year investment. They said they'd be interested in helping if government helps.
It may seem like an unusual step, but we have precedents with the federal government. We're the first civilian organization in Canada to use something that's called night-vision goggles. The federal government funded that program for us. We're the first organization outside of the military to use them, because we're flying in complicated situations in the middle of the night in mountains and all that stuff.
During the G8 in 2002 we were asked to provide air support to the Kananaskis, and we couldn't because we didn't have enough aircraft. The federal government helped us fund a helicopter at that time. You may wonder what we are doing here. What we're trying to identify is that we touch many ministries but don't perfectly fit in any one.
11:30 a.m.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Thank you all for being here today, and thank you to those of you who travelled a distance to be here.
I would like to begin with you, Mr. Peco and Mr. Fritz, if we could.
Can you help me understand the structure of how you raise money? For example, the Calgary Stampede is a very popular event. I think it brings in a lot of money but I can appreciate that there are probably some smaller events—which I think was the theme of your comments, Mr. Peco—that do struggle with raising....
Is it a fee structure that these events pay to you? How are you structured?
11:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions
We have a very modest membership fee structure that members, participating fairs, pay us to represent them on issues of national importance. There are provincially organized associations that work closely with provincial governments, and we're organized nationally to represent members on national issues of interest.
I think it's a bit misleading to suggest that the majority of fairs in Canada represent or resemble the stampede or the Canadian National Exhibition. There are only nine fairs that have attendance in excess of 100,000 people across the country. The vast majority of these fairs are local community organizations run by volunteers, and these volunteers come together, support and often own community space. That space is made for community assembly and activities, and they volunteer year-round to orchestrate, plan and execute their annual fair.
The needs are similar regardless of fair size across the country. We all struggle with the same challenges around infrastructure funding, programming development and biosecurity. These are all very important themes, but the magnitude, perhaps, does change based on the fair we're speaking about.
11:30 a.m.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Does the membership fee structure do something? Does the Calgary Stampede then inadvertently fund some of the smaller ones, or is it nominal and doesn't really have an impact?
11:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions
Each member organization is fully self-sufficient in their own right. They contribute a modest amount, in the neighbourhood of $100 for a small fair, to join the association. A larger fair may contribute something in the order of several thousand dollars. There's a varied scale across the country, but our membership fees are not our only source of programming funds. We've successfully obtained provincial and federal grants in the past that have enabled us to put on very successful E. coli workshops, as an example.
I suppose we envision that the demands of the new traceability requirements the federal government is implementing will create a significant role for us to play in the development of programming and services to support our members. In some cases, our members will pay for such services.
11:35 a.m.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Thank you for helping explain that.
I want to turn attention to our friends from STARS in western Canada. Thank you for all the work you do. When you see the STARS helicopter in the sky, it's certainly recognizable in western Canada where I'm from, in Edmonton. Thank you.
I know that you encompass B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and I guess somewhat, Manitoba, but then there's Ornge. They do the Ontario component. Are you partners in a lot of ways? Is there a line in the sand that neither of you cross? What's the relationship with organizations like Ornge?
11:35 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS)
Thank you for the great question.
We're actually partners with all the air medical programs in Canada. Ornge is the most recognizable, largest program. What differentiates us is that Ornge is an entirely provincially funded organization. I'd argue it has to be. It's a large, high-density population. The vast majority of what Ornge does, close to 80%, is inter-facility, hospital to hospital. We would be doing almost the reverse—scene to hospital.
There's a fundamental difference in terms of density of population and the infrastructure that's required. But we do share all of our learning and try to make sure that the level of patient care continues to rise to the highest boat from coast to coast. We have some very good relationships.
11:35 a.m.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Okay, so Ornge is 100% funded provincially, and you are about 44% funded provincially in comparison. That's interesting.
Looking at your financial statement here, it seems there have been some increases in certain areas of funds, but the lottery, for example, brought in less in the previous year. I guess that's the 2018 year end of March 31.
Are we seeing, across western Canada, a reduction in people donating to organizations like yours? Perhaps you could comment on why and what could be helpful.
11:35 a.m.
Wendy Beauchesne Executive Vice-President, Foundation, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS)
Thank you for the question.
Absolutely, we definitely have seen a dip, although not as significant as other non-profits in western Canada have seen. Depending on the year, we have seen around a 15% dip on average in philanthropic donations.
That said, we are very lucky in western Canada. We have a great group of supporters—over 50,000, and another 100,000 supporting our lotteries. Last year our lottery, for the first time in its 24-year history, did not sell out. That was a bit of a bellwether for us, for sure. We've never had that struggle before. The previous two years were also a struggle. We've seen a slight dip but overall we're pretty confident in our ability to continue supporting and getting support from western Canadians.
11:35 a.m.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Just to follow up, any idea as to why that would have happened?
11:35 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Foundation, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS)
What we're hearing from our supporters is that it was really the economy. The economic downturn in western Canada certainly hurt us.
What we found was that many of our major donors—industry—cut other sponsorships or donations to others, but they did keep STARS. They might have lowered it slightly, or extended their pledges over a few more years. Again, we are very lucky, but we did see a bit of a dip.
11:40 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Thank you to all witnesses for very interesting statements. That will be very helpful to us, so thank you for that.
I'd like to start with Ms. Armstrong.
You have set out a series of recommendations that are very important. We have heard from a number of indigenous leaders, first nations' leaders and regional grand chiefs on a couple of occasions in western Canada, all stressing the same thing—that what is needed for reconciliation is a sea change, a fundamental change, in how we put together a federal budget, and to make substantial investments in infrastructure, in housing and education, in indigenous languages, in programs and supports like the programs that are so valuable that come out of your organization.
Would you agree, in terms of reconciliation, that rather than small levels of funding, what we really need is a fundamental change in how we put together a federal budget so that we can achieve meaningful national reconciliation?
11:40 a.m.
Executive Director, Indigenous Women's Healing Centre
Yes. Thank you for the question.
I agree that the band-aid approaches and governments working in silos definitely create barriers to organizations like mine that are providing the social service at the ground level. It's hard to think globally or nationally when the issues coming to me on a daily basis are so immediate and sensitive.
One of the frustrations that I have on a daily basis is the fact that my funding is piecemeal. There are systems that are put in place to act as extra barriers for indigenous women, systems like the child and family services systems and the EIA systems. That might not be on a national agenda but I really believe that the Government of Canada has the ability to impact and direct the provinces to stop working in such silos when it comes to these grassroots issues.
Particularly when it's about women who are struggling, who have their children apprehended and no longer get the EIA to afford their apartment, who are no longer able to get their kids back from care because they have no place to live because EIA won't give them an apartment with the right space for them to have their children. That's one example of how systems are constantly revolving doors for the women who are trying to navigate through them.
11:40 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Annetta, from your organizational standpoint, how many women and families would you see who are impacted by that, who have no housing and as a result aren't able to be united with their kids?
