Finance Committee on Oct. 20th, 2016

[André Nepton]

In terms of satellite technology, Xplornet is the custodian of the broadband in Canada. You can consult its site directly and you will see its two ellipses covering all of Canada, which are well served by the satellite. We have to keep in mind that, unfortunately, this technology will still be limited to 20 megabytes until 2020. We hope that it will increase a bit more afterwards.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Are you satisfied?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Yes. That's good. They gave me the website.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you both.

Mr. Grewal.

[Raj Grewal, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you to the witnesses for coming today.

I'm going to continue very much on the same themes as my colleagues talked about.

First, on homelessness, I think we can all agree that no Canadian should be on the streets. There was a report released today that the government would have to add an additional $2 billion a year for 10 years to end homelessness in Canada. I would like your comment on how much money it is actually going to cost to solve this problem in our country.

[Pierre Gaudreau]

I'll answer your question in French.

The request for $2 billion is related to an investment in housing. The request for federal investment to be doubled in the development of social housing was made a long time ago. It would serve to reduce or even eliminate and prevent homelessness, but also to meet the housing needs of many Canadians, indigenous people in the north, people in cities and in rural communities. So this is not just about homelessness.

It is a request that we support. It was signed by many stakeholders and by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The allocations that the federal government could commit would also represent an increased investment. We do support the idea of an additional investment for that.

Furthermore, we are asking for an increase in the budget for the homelessness partnering strategy. The federal government's contribution to the fight against homelessness must not, and cannot be, devoted solely to investment in housing. It must also go to preventing, supporting and reintegrating the homeless in Canada into schools and the workplace.

[Raj Grewal, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Lemieux, thank you for your comments.

As the chair mentioned before, we've heard from organizations relatively across the country that have advocated for people experiencing frustration on the family transfer, so we'll definitely take that back to the minister and make a recommendation accordingly. I don't have a question. I simply wanted to acknowledge the fact that we hear you loud and clear.

Mr. Nepton, on rural Internet access, I come from the ninth biggest city in the country, and not having the Internet is something.... I'd probably go stir crazy if I didn't have access to the Internet. In terms of the economic impact in rural areas, can you add some more colour? If there's a dollar-for-dollar impact, how much would it...? If the government were to invest in getting Internet connectivity there, how much of a benefit would it be to those communities?

[André Nepton]

Clearly, I have no training as an economist to be able to provide you with specific data about the impact. However, if you allow me, I will talk about accessibility.

Earlier, we talked about the farmers and the UPA. I come from the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region that has many cattle farms and dairy farms. Farmers have made some shifts and technological choices to increase their production capacity and to be able to remain competitive on the national stage. They have acquired sophisticated measuring equipment and sensors that monitor the entire production and animal life in real time.

However, unfortunately, as soon as those people move away 200 feet from their WiFi terminal, if they work in the fields or if they are on the road, they no longer receive any security updates as to crises that could occur in their production facilities.

So access to the Internet, particularly mobile Internet, has unexpected impacts. As you mentioned, the issue of all mobile applications, which are currently being developed and are not accessible, will really affect the entire competitiveness dimension of the rural scene and, unfortunately, speed up the decline of the communities that are most likely to feel it.

[Raj Grewal, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you for your comments.

The government has made a commitment to make sure the entire country is connected, but the chair reminded me that previous governments, both Conservative and Liberal, have made this commitment. I'm really hoping that we can get some movement on that file going forward.

Mr. Leblanc, you spoke about infrastructure funding in small and medium enterprises. As you know, the government has made infrastructure funding the core of its economic growth strategy. In the first year, a lot of the projects weren't able to get going, but we should see some significant pickup going into the construction season next year.

On the impact on Montreal, could you add some colour to that?

[Michel Leblanc]

I'll answer your question in French.

First, it is very clear that the analysis had to be done correctly and without rushing. It was fine to do it that way. You say that it must be done in the second year. As I said earlier, we think the public transit project will be ready to start in a year. So we should move forward with that.

For public transit, a great deal of municipal infrastructure must be set up in the Montreal area. Once again, to that end, the projects are ready and there are signs that municipal projects will have priority. That's very good.

I would add that federal infrastructure would also benefit from investments. I'm thinking of research and innovation. In the Montreal area, we have the Biotechnology Research Institute, the Centre for Self-Assembled Chemical Structures and the Canadian Space Agency. Elsewhere in the country, there are other federal research centres. We leave them dormant. They are not visible pillars that highlight economic development and that work closely with companies. In fact, they do not work closely enough with them.

In terms of reinvestment in the infrastructure, we should also look at the federal strategic infrastructure and ask ourselves a question. If we want the infrastructure to contribute to economic development, how will we support it? In the Montreal area, there are three infrastructures, but there are some across the country that could benefit from those reinvestments.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We'll have to end there, Raj. We're already substantially over the time when we were supposed to adjourn.

I have just two other questions, or I guess a comment, Mr. Leblanc.

The Champlain Bridge didn't come up, but just so you know, we have supported that the federal government pay for that bridge. Ever since a senator started advocating to drop the tolls on the Confederation Bridge, the biggest complaint I get in my riding is why the federal government is paying for the Champlain Bridge when we in P.E.I. have to pay a $46 toll to get to New Brunswick. That's a good thing for you. I get a few complaints. I'll stand by the contract that we signed on the Confederation Bridge, just so you know. I figured I had better point that out.

Mr. Lemieux, I'd like to go back to the AgriStability program for a minute. I understand from what you said that the Quebec government has picked up some of that sleeve between 70% and 85% where the threshold was in terms of support. The provincial government picks it up when incomes fall below that threshold. On the federal-provincial agreement, I do know that the difficulty is that if the sleeve that provincial government works within has to cover some of the cost of AgriStability, then it can do less with the monies for whatever other things it might do.

Would you like to comment on that a little further? I'd like to know where the Quebec government is on that.

[Pierre Lemieux]

I don't think the Government of Quebec has decreased its participation in other areas of activity, given that it has increased its support for the AgriStability program.

Earlier, you were making the connection with programs that were historically administered by the Conseil pour le développement de l'agriculture du Québec. We have noticed that agri-environmental programs have been established in recent years and that there has been a decrease in the envelope, the budgets, for the participation of farms. In the past, when it was managed by SEDAC Environment, more farms participated. We wonder why things have changed.

We know that water and environmental issues are increasingly significant concerns for civil society. Instead of implementing regulatory measures, we would like to go back to a more direct form of management by producers or farm producer groups. We could see whether there is a way to do more on the agri-environmental front with a co-operative approach and management by people in the community.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I would like to thank all the witnesses for their presentations. We have those who presented briefs, and those briefs are on our iPads and will be gone through in detail.

Thank you all again for your presentations and answering questions.

We will suspend for five minutes. I understand there are one or two people here for the open-mike session following, which is where individuals can make a statement of two minutes or thereabouts on what they want to put on the record for the finance committee.

Pierre, did you want to raise a point?

[Pierre Lemieux]

Earlier, I told you that we would send you a note from our tax expert about it.

One of the observations has to do with the corporate structure in the event of transfers. Given that the taxes paid by the companies are lower than those paid by individuals, more and more people have suggested that, instead of running the business under their own entity, they can create a company. When the time comes to transfer the company, the shares would be applied differently if it were sold to people in the family than if it were sold to other people. So a change needs to be made to make the transfer accessible when the company's shareholders are members of the same family.

I'll still send you the note or notice from our tax expert.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much.

The meeting is suspended for five minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Engineers Without Borders, welcome. This will be the first time we've heard from you. Congratulations to your organization for making your point across the country.

Go ahead. The floor is yours.

[Cédrik Chouinard, As an Individual]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My name is Cédrik Chouinard. I am an undergraduate economics student at Laval University and I have also been a member of Engineers Without Borders Canada for five years now.

I would like to reiterate that Engineers Without Borders works very hard in Canada on university campuses and in professional communities, in order to allow development assistance to make a difference for the poorest in the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. We also work in some countries in that region to develop projects that spark the innovation and leadership of entrepreneurs.

Personally, I just want to say that, for a number of years, our organization has been working to ensure that official development assistance is not only increasing in Canada, but that it is also more effective. We don't just want to have more money, but we want it to be used in the most effective way possible. Right now, we are seeing that increasingly ambitious objectives seeking to solve the problems in the world, including sustainable development objectives, require a more ambitious portfolio.

So, on behalf of my organization and of members in my department at Laval University, I request that an effort be made to increase development assistance by 10% in budget 2017 and until the end of the 42nd Parliament. In addition, we ask that a timeline be established so that, by 2023, the official development assistance portfolio is doubled not only for us to achieve our ambitious goal of eliminating extreme poverty, but also for Canada to fulfill its commitment under the Paris agreement, which suggested that 0.7% of the GDP be used for official development assistance.

This is what I am humbly asking your committee to do.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much for coming forward.

There is only one open-mike presentation today.

With that, we will adjourn and reconvene in the grand city of Toronto.

The meeting is adjourned.