Finance Committee on June 18th, 2019

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Andrew, can you...?

[Andrew Marsland]

Sure. I can't speak to decisions about what is included and not included in the Budget Implementation Act, but budget 2019 announced the government's intention to move this forward, with details to be released before the summer. Yesterday's tabling of the ways and means motion was the next step in that regard.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Right.

The government has mentioned that it's going to consult. It's creating a bunch of new loopholes from the new change, one of which is that employees of publicly traded companies that the government considers innovative and fast-growing will continue to get the stock option deduction, rather than the company itself getting it.

Have you received any submissions so far from those wishing to offer input on who should qualify for that particular carve-out?

[Andrew Marsland]

We only tabled the ways and means motion yesterday, and we issued the press release asking for input by September 16, I believe. We would expect input on what those prescribed conditions are and what the regulations would lay out in terms of the non-application of the $200,000 cap for emerging, fast-growing, scaling-up corporations.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Right, but as you correctly pointed out, the budget announced that this was the intention of the government, and it specifically said in the budget book that there would be a carve-out for fast-growing start-ups.

Has the government received any input on how to define a fast-growing start-up from industry since that budgetary announcement?

[Andrew Marsland]

I'd have to check whether we received representations. There was certainly media coverage in terms of those criteria.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

But you don't know if you received any input at all.

[Andrew Marsland]

I think there may have been some commentary. I would have to check as to whether there was specific input.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

You're out of time.

Just on this aspect, is there a specific consultation taking place between now and September on this, or is it just feedback on the website or directly to Finance Canada?

[Andrew Marsland]

The announcement yesterday, Mr. Chair, was that the government had tabled a notice of ways and means motion—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Yes.

[Andrew Marsland]

—laying out new rules governing stock options. There was a provision there for regulations that would deal with the criteria that would define fast-emerging scale-up corporations. The government sought input from Canadians on what those criteria should be until September 16.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

What I'm wondering is how that comes in. Does it come in through Finance Canada's website? Where is the target?

[Andrew Marsland]

There was a link to provide those comments to the Department of Finance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

All right.

Ms. Bendayan is next.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you.

First I want to ask a question for clarification. My colleague spoke about the statutory expenditures in the main estimates. You were kind enough to provide a breakdown of those.

I did not hear the exact breakdown for transfer payments regarding health care. Could you perhaps let us know, if you have that information, how much the federal government is providing to each of the provinces and territories for health care?

[Darlene Bess]

Someone from federal-provincial relations can speak to that. Unfortunately, I don't have the breakdown myself.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

That's fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We still have three chairs empty. We might fill them all yet. You never know.

Ms. McDonald, did you hear the question, or do you want it repeated?

[Suzy McDonald, Assistant Deputy Minister, Opioid Response Team, Department of Health]

I did hear the question. Thank you very much.

I don't have the breakdown by province, but I can talk to you a little bit about how it works. I'll just note that this is the Canada health transfer for which the main estimates has over $40 billion estimated.

Essentially, this program grows in line with a growth track. We do a three-year moving average on the gross domestic product, with funding to increase by a guaranteed amount of 3% every year. For 2019-20, that growth is 4.6%, which is in line with that growth track.

This funding is flexible. It goes to the provinces and territories. It's block funding; they can use it as they want, although we do have conditions associated with it, and it is allocated on a per capita basis.

In addition to this amount—and it might be what you're referring to as well—there is funding that is provided through Health Canada that in a previous year came through Finance Canada's budget as a one-time payment, but the funding for home care services and mental health services is included in Health Canada's budgeting process.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you very much.

Budget 2019 also proposed a series of new measures to strengthen anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist financing. I note there is a significant amount of funding that relates to these new measures. I was wondering if somebody could explain what programs might be initiated with this additional funding.

[Lynn Hemmings]

Two key programs I should highlight are what we call the ACE team: our anti-money laundering action, coordination and enforcement team. That's going to bring together dedicated experts from across intelligence and law enforcement—it will bring someone from CBSA, CRA, RCMP and forensic accountants—to do the analysis on information, including big data, and send leads to law enforcement. That was for $24 million over five years.

The other program that is new is a trade fraud and trade-based money laundering centre of expertise. That identified $28.6 million for the Canada Border Services Agency to strengthen capacity—and FINTRAC also got a bit of money there too—to target these growing crimes.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you.

Again, to pick up on an earlier conversation with respect to the open banking review, I'm pleased to hear that the consultations went so well. When can we expect action on this front? Is there anything in the pipeline that you can talk to us about?

What we've heard is that we're moving in the right direction, that we have great examples with Australia and the United Kingdom. When do you expect Canada to jump in?

[Leah Anderson]

The expert panel that I referred to earlier is preparing a report to the minister. Actually, as we speak, that's in the process of being delivered. The minister will receive that report and determine next steps.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.