Evidence of meeting #52 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was artists.
A video is available from Parliament.
Director, Regulatory Affairs and Government Relations, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association
Verizon is the most expensive wireless provider in the world. Their rates are higher than those of any Canadian company, and they have more than 100 million subscribers in the U.S.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
—and I wouldn't interrupt his authority.
There are truck drivers in my neck of the woods who have American cellphone numbers because the North American plan is cheaper. Think about that for a second. They are okay with having a U.S. cellphone number because that plan in the United States is cheaper than what we provide here. It all has to do with the big guys, the Bells and the Rogerses of the world, protecting their interests here.
Rogers invested in the Blue Jays, so I would pass that on to your client as well. If they re-sign those two players, I'll back off—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I don't think you need to answer that, Kurt.
We will turn to Mr. Deltell and Mr. Aboultaif jointly.
Go ahead.
Conservative
Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you, Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.
My colleague's remarks were very interesting. I understand why he is dressed in blue today, and that is very inspiring.
I would like to continue the discussion with you, Mr. Eby. Why are there such distortions between the Canadian and American markets? We know Canada has a smaller population and a different geographic situation.
I am asking you an open question. Many Canadians wonder how we could further liberalize the current regulations to allow a price reduction.
Director, Regulatory Affairs and Government Relations, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association
Obviously, it's something the previous government looked at and made some changes to, and prices did decline. When data usage is increasing by 40% or 50% per year, I can't really think of a lot of industries where what people are using increases by that amount and think that prices would somehow go down significantly.
Conservative
Conservative
Ziad Aboultaif Conservative Edmonton Manning, AB
I have a question for the Co-op Housing Federation of Canada.
You mentioned that you need to leverage the asset, which is a public asset—maybe semi-public, if you wish.
In order to maintain the units and the lifetime of the units you own, is it a normal practice in your business to keep some money on the side? How can you expect the government to give you a policy to leverage borrowing money on a government account?
Program Manager, Policy and Government Relations, Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada
First, just in terms of the co-operative identity, housing co-operatives are autonomous, non-governmental organizations that do have long-term operating agreements and partnerships with government, but they are autonomous and they are outside of government.
Second, in terms of a normal business practice of setting aside replacement reserves or capital reserves, that is a practice within housing co-operatives across the country. However, there are actually a few anomalies in the way replacement reserves are saved and those are a result of the strict long-term operating agreements with CMHC that, in some cases, have actually prevented housing co-operatives from allocating a sufficient amount to their replacement reserves, which has contributed to a capital repair backlog in some cases. That's why it's even more important today that these autonomous co-operative enterprises that are home to Canadians be able to go out onto the market and get better interest rates in order to modernize their properties, make them more energy-efficient, and preserve a very good-quality housing stock for Canadians.
Conservative
Ziad Aboultaif Conservative Edmonton Manning, AB
I have a question for Colleges and Institutes Canada. You're asking for a fourfold increase from $75 million to $300 million annually for the next five years. That's a very significant increase you are asking for.
Do you have the infrastructure and the detailed plan in order to be able to cope with these increases and to make a logical case so the government can be convinced to invest with you?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Colleges and Institutes Canada
Absolutely. Most of our colleges are now involved in applied research and, for example, we have 30 technology access centres across the country. In Quebec alone, they have close to 50 college centres for the transfer of technology, CCTT.
Above and beyond that, I'll just give you some statistics with respect to the infrastructure. There are 763 specialized research centres and labs across the country, so, yes, we do have the infrastructure, but it's always nice to have more infrastructure, and the government has been quite good recently in putting up $2 billion with respect to post-secondary infrastructure. A number of our colleges across the country, in fact, received funding to build new research centres whether linked to entrepreneurship or to energy or to any other area that you can imagine with respect to applied research.
On top of that, there are already provisions by the CFI, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, which provides funding on a yearly basis for colleges and institutes in need.
Why do we need funding right now? I'll give you some examples. First, it is to increase the number of technology access centres, which are really centres of excellence in applied research targeted to specific areas.
Second, it would be to increase the funding that we currently have under NSERC to help small and medium-sized enterprises and to make permanent the social innovations funding, which we got under the previous government but which ended. It was temporary, and we would like it to be permanent, and we would like to have more funding because, as I said earlier, currently we have to say no to industry when they knock on the door and ask us to develop a new product. They have an idea, and very often we have to turn them down now because there is just not enough capacity—
President and Chief Executive Officer, Colleges and Institutes Canada
I'll stop here.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We're out of time, and I'm sorry not everyone got a question in during the questioning round.
I want to thank each of the witnesses for their briefs and their presentations and responding to questions.
This wraps up our hearings on pre-budget consultations. There's a lot of work to do. Some of you folks have a lot of work to do, as well as us. The members need to be thinking about what kind of recommendations they want to put forward in the report when it is prepared.
This is the last meeting at this stage. I want to thank all the witnesses we've heard since the last week in September, and certainly thank the Library of Parliament staff for all work they did—the logistics officers, the clerks, the analysts, and the translators. There are a lot of people to thank. This process doesn't come easy, so we thank everyone for all their help in making this work.
With that, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you to all.