Thank you to you both.
Mr. Sorbara.
Evidence of meeting #38 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was airports.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #38 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was airports.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, everyone, and good evening. There is a lot of good insight tonight.
To Mr. Kahn, I think I'm going to go back to university. If you want to do a lecture, come in my office, and I'll sit there for an hour or two and listen to everything you have to say.
September 29th, 2016 / 5:50 p.m.
Executive Vice-President, Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy
We'd actually welcome briefing this committee.
5:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
We need to talk about that.
To Daniel, I was flipping through GTAA's financial statements, filings, and stuff. I used to cover them in the private sector.
In 2015, there were 41 million passengers; in 2014, 38.5 million, an increase of 2.5 million. Basically, that is one new Billy Bishop.
This year they're up 10.9 versus 9.9, so for six months of the year they're already up a million passengers. Speaking to the volumes that are going through, the ground rent, they're on track to be about $150 million this year in ground rent payments to the airports. That's a flow-through. That doesn't get tacked on to what people pay.
You have commented on how we treat airports, how we look at airports. There's been a lot written about it. I've read about it and written about how they are economic drivers. We need to look at them on that level.
With regard to the six small airports, how important would that change be? What would be the bang for our buck in making that change for those six smaller-sized airports?
5:50 p.m.
President, Canadian Airports Council
We're talking about air gateways into their communities. Prince George is about an eight- to 10-hour drive from Vancouver as I understand it. I've never done it. I might be really wrong, but it's a long drive. Charlottetown, the only air gateway in Prince Edward Island, is a major tourism market.
For airports of this size, it's a challenge to fund both operating costs and capital costs on an ongoing basis. The government recognized this back in 1994 when the national airports policy was written. Other airports in a similar category have been able to make do because they've been able to participate in federal programs from time to time, including ACAP, but these airports are barred from it, and also have to start paying rent as well. It's early days for rent payments for some of them. Ultimately, money will be going out the door as well, so it's quite significant.
In some of these communities, they've reached the point where they're not sure they could necessarily even raise the AIF enough to cover the costs associated with the infrastructure improvements without scaring off the commercial carriers that they have now.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
We're looking to grow our tourism numbers and encourage people to visit places like Prince Edward Island. I grew up on the north coast. I know the drive from Prince Rupert, Prince George, and then down to Vancouver. I know it quite well, so it's very important.
I'd like to switch gears to the gentlemen from the Mining Innovation Council.
Mr. Robitaille, good evening to you. I know your firm very well. The CFO there is a former colleague, and a great friend of mine, Mr. Smith. Please pass on my hellos. Sorry to make it personal, but I did want to say that.
The ask over five years of $50 million is to be matched by the Innovation Council. Have you even done a cost-benefit analysis on that? It seems to be such an attractive program to look at. It meets a lot of the government's goals on reducing greenhouse gases, switching, and moving toward a more low-carbon environment, a low-carbon intensity, if I can use that language. There seem to be a lot of wins for the mining industry that could be looked at from this program.
5:55 p.m.
Senior Vice-President, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, Canada Mining Innovation Council
I will make some remarks, and then I will leave a bit of time for Carl.
It's $50 million, and the intention is to add from the industry another $50 million, so we're speaking about an investment of $100 million. On the cost-benefit, first of all, what will make a difference with CMIC? The intention is to be led by the industry. You have the players of the industry on the board of CMIC who want to look at each of the innovation projects that will move forward and be treated with a business case. We don't want to just invest money. We want to ensure there will be a return.
When you invest in innovation, you have to share the risks and rewards. We see the possibility of increasing in some places by 10 times the investment we are proposing. If you look at global production, just in Canada, in terms of all the metal, just 1% will represent a huge benefit, but it will be more than this. If we can move the mining business to the next level, you will see junior companies coming back, restarting exploration, and we will go back to where we were. Presently, there is a lack of exploration.
Carl, do you wish to add something?
5:55 p.m.
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Mining Innovation Council
Yes, just a little more on top of that.
In my opening remarks and in our brief, we've mentioned a business case. We have a full business case for towards zero waste, and it's oriented towards industry. In that business case, we have calculated what the ROIs are for 14 companies across Canada, so it is substantial.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thanks to both of you. We do have the member for Charlottetown here, one of the small port areas, and I expect he'll have a question for you before we get out of here.
Mr. Aboultaif.
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
Ziad Aboultaif Conservative Edmonton Manning, AB
Thank you very much. I have a few questions.
One is for Dr. Miller and is about the question asked by my colleague, Mr. McColeman. I know that you stand by the CMA, the Canadian Medical Association, in your request to the government to basically amend the implementation act on the group medical structure. This is a sort of tax hike on your business. He asked you about the percentage. You did not give an answer on that, which is fine.
The second part of the question is, will it cause a decrease in access to health care for patients?
5:55 p.m.
President, Canadian Association of Radiologists
Yes, and I think because it's a disincentive to work in groups, particularly academically. From a radiology point of view, academic delivery of services in radiology is all done by groups.
I think we'd have a hard time attracting people to academic groups. I think it will have impacts on the ability to educate future radiologists. Also, we educate not only radiologists but subspecialists of all natures, such as surgeons, neurologists, and those in orthopedics, etc.
As well, it's going to have an impact on research, because the people who are doing research are those in academic centres, so if it's harder to attract people into the academic world, then it's going to be harder to get those things done. There are a lot of committed people who will stay and suck it up, but it's going to be hard over time. It's going to be a disincentive to get people to come and work in those circumstances.
Also, there's the delivery of comprehensive care. For example, I'm a neuroradiologist. I only look at the brain and the spine. As you know, in order to deliver full-body, full patient care, we need all kinds of subspecialists if we want to provide expert care. Or we could have all general radiologists who just provide general level care, but it's not as expert as subspecialized care. This way, we can bring subspecialists together in groups and provide full-body service, so to speak, without paying a penalty.
6 p.m.
Conservative
6 p.m.
President, Canadian Association of Radiologists
Dollar-wise? Hang on a second. Maybe Nick can help me with that.
6 p.m.
Nicholas Neuheimer Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Association of Radiologists
Mr. Kahn would correct me, but I believe the latest government figures on health care are $220 billion.
6 p.m.
A voice
On the health care budget.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Ziad Aboultaif Conservative Edmonton Manning, AB
In your business, the association of radiologists, how many people do you employ in Canada in total?
6 p.m.
President, Canadian Association of Radiologists
I think there are about 3,000 radiologists in Canada.
6 p.m.
President, Canadian Association of Radiologists
No. A very few, probably, are employees.
A number are employees of hospitals under alternative payment plans, but mostly they're independent practitioners working together in groups or solo, and mostly running their own businesses.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Ziad Aboultaif Conservative Edmonton Manning, AB
How much is the budget going to benefit in 2016 from changing this regulation? Again, in dollars and cents, do you have any idea?