Finance Committee on Feb. 18th, 2016

Evidence of meeting #6 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Pre-budget consultations 2016

MPs speaking

Wayne Easter

Raj Grewal

Lisa Raitt

Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet

Robert-Falcon Ouellette

Ziad Aboultaif

François-Philippe Champagne

Jennifer O'Connell

Sheri Benson

Also speaking

Simon Brault Director and Chief Executive Officer, Director's Office, Canada Council for the Arts

Mark Bain Vice-Chair, Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships

Jeff Morrison Executive Director, Canadian Housing and Renewal Association

Martin Lavoie Director, Business Tax and Innovation, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters

Matthew Calver Economist, Centre for the Study of Living Standards

Morna Ballantyne Member of the Board of Directors, Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada

Christopher Smillie Senior Advisor, Government Relations and Public Affairs, Canada's Building Trades Unions

Christopher Ragan Chair, Canada's Ecofiscal Commission

Aaron Wudrick Federal Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Martha Durdin President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Credit Union Association

Sylviane Lanthier Chair, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada

Raymond Louie President, Federation of Canadian Municipalities

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB

Thank you very much.

Maybe I'll add an extra question, but the next one is concerning the co-operatives for banking.

Winnipeg Centre is a very poor riding. We use an awful lot of those cash types of corporations, where high usury rates are paid by many people. It seems that the co-ops haven't been able to fill the marketplace.

Do you believe there's a role perhaps for Canada Post to play, with their charter that has existed since 1923, I believe, in that market, and even in rural areas, to enable people to cash cheques?

6:25 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Credit Union Association

Martha Durdin

I would say that credit unions are working hard to try to help in communities where they have those other organizations.

There's some work that's been done in Vancouver. Vancity has a similar kind of short-term loan structure that has worked out fairly well.

Ontario announced recently that they're working with the provincial government to work on payday loan types of organizations.

I would say that credit unions are fairly well placed to work with the provincial governments, mostly, to try to support communities that are underserved by banks and others.

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB

Thank you very much.

Could I have five seconds?

6:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

No, we're out of time.

To the witnesses, thank you very much for your presentations. They were very informative. It was a good discussion.

Also, thanks to committee members for your endurance. These have been three fairly long days.

Tomorrow we meet at room C-110 at 1 Wellington from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., and then we'll meet in the next room over from here from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The meeting is adjourned.