Evidence of meeting #4 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infrastructure.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Phil McColeman Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Thank you very much.
Is there anything from the petroleum pipeline people?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
Yes. I would say that from our perspective it's less of an ask; it's more of a give.
If we have an appropriate regulatory system that allows us to have access to new markets, that's a plus of billions of dollars, and if we're investing in building these pipelines, that's plus tens of billions of dollars.
February 17th, 2016 / 6:15 p.m.
Conservative
Phil McColeman Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Okay, I have to cut you off, I'm sorry. So it's zero.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Mr. McColeman, I'll not take time from you, but it's fair for Ms. Sutherland Boal....
She said $3 billion was the ask, but what's the saving from going to home care? Let's balance this out.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Nurses Association
We haven't made that assessment.
Liberal
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Nurses Association
What we support is the federal commitment to home care.
Liberal
Conservative
Phil McColeman Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Thank you. I was just going to ask you to add some more time. A minute and a half would be more appropriate.
This question is for the CUPE representative.
Sir, you mentioned in your submission to us that you're against TPP and you're against the CETA agreement. Is your position on free trade agreements in general that you're against them?
Senior Economist, Canadian Union of Public Employees
I said that we are opposed to agreements that expand corporate power at the expense of jobs and wages and that undermine local—
Senior Economist, Canadian Union of Public Employees
Yes, we are opposed to ratification of the TPP.
Conservative
Phil McColeman Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Are you opposed to ratification of both of those free trade agreements?
Senior Economist, Canadian Union of Public Employees
As long as.... For instance, TPP includes investor-state dispute settlement, and I read in the newspaper that right now, there is a company suing the Canadian government for $600 million for environmental mitigation.
Conservative
Phil McColeman Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Okay, and I believe your organization, if my memory serves me right, was against NAFTA as well.
Let's move on to the next question, which was with regard to home care. I'm very familiar with that. I worked 29 years with some of the most vulnerable people in society, disabled people.
Often, in some of the most gut-wrenching circumstances, parents have to tend to their children's needs when they're diagnosed with cancer. That was my situation when my son was two years old. My wife and I have a small business. One of us left our job, and we stayed with our child.
Through those years, we found that the support of civic organizations—civil society, if you want to call it that—such as the Canadian Cancer Society and others was quite adequate. In fact, it was a bit overly generous at times for our situation. There were other families on the oncology floor—about 16 of us—at McMaster Hospital. There were other people in different socio-economic circumstances who were given additional resources from civil society organizations, such as church groups and others who support that.
Is there any place in Canadian society for that to be a model to go forward? We survived it and we came out stronger. We weren't eating Kraft Dinner every night; we were living, not a rich lifestyle, but.... I'm not going to go there, but do you know what I'm trying to say here?
I hear all of this, and I think it's admirable, but I'm a conservative and I say the government can't do everything for everybody.
President, Canadian Medical Association
I'd like to respond to that. I'm certainly familiar with many of the community resources, as a family physician, and they're an important part of our system. One problem is that they're somewhat fragmented. Very often, one agency doesn't speak to another, or it's very difficult for caregivers to actually find out what's available in the communities. So the coordination of it is not optimal in many cases, certainly in the community where I work.
However, there's still a role for the public system. The way I see the community agencies is that they are a supplement, an addition, but the public system is still the core of our health care system.
One of the issues we have with the lack of home care is that right now about 15% of the hospital beds in Canada are taken up by seniors waiting to be placed in a nursing home or to go home with home care—home care that is not available. We really do feel that it is money wasted, at $1,000 a day for those beds versus $50 a day for home care. We estimate that it's about $2.3 billion. That's one of the issues.
But I hear what you're saying: that is an important part of our system. But it can't replace the role of the public system.
Conservative
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
I have a question for CAPP and those from the energy portfolio.
WTI is at $31 a barrel; WCS is at—what?—half of that, I think. Has either of your organizations estimated the lost revenue from the discount between WTI and WCS to the Canadian economy?
Vice-President, Policy and Performance, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
There's a fairly dynamic relationship between them, so it really depends upon which time period you want to pick. It's significant enough at any given time that you don't want to lose that opportunity—
Liberal
Vice-President, Policy and Performance, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Yes, probably. Chris, do you want to...?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
What's important to point out, If I may.... I would say that the differential between WTI and WCS today is a function of our having to discount our heavy crude going into the U.S. market. With access to offshore markets and so on, that differential would collapse substantially.