Evidence of meeting #26 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was c-14.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you.
Ms. Dzerowicz, you have four minutes, and we'll let you wrap it up.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all the officials for being here today. Thanks so much for your dedication and your hard work through this unprecedented time, which we all hope will be over sometime soon.
I have two sets of questions. The first is around the Canada emergency rent subsidy. The businesses in my riding of Davenport, and I'm sure right across this country, were super happy when they could apply for the rent subsidy directly to the government.
With regard to the two questions I have, one is that, if I understand correctly, if Bill C-14 is to pass, the rent subsidy would become an eligible expense. Does that mean that a business can apply for the rent money in advance of actually having to pay the rent? That's question one.
My second part is that I believe that under CECRA, the first version of the rent subsidy, there were 140,000 small businesses that received the first version of the subsidy. Can you give me an idea of how many small businesses actually receive this rent subsidy now?
Senior Director, Tax Legislation Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Thank you for the question. I'll let my colleague Maude Lavoie discuss the statistics on the uptick for the rent subsidy.
You're absolutely correct. The rent subsidy currently, that is, before the application of Bill C-14, requires an amount to have been paid, and then the subsidy is based upon rent that has been paid, similar to the earlier discussion of the wage subsidy.
What the measure in Bill C-14 would do is allow an applicant for the rent subsidy to obtain the rent subsidy based on an amount that has become due but has not yet been paid. There is, of course, a requirement that the amount actually be paid. However, it would help cash flow for business applicants for the rent subsidy by allowing them to make their rent subsidy applications based on an amount due, to obtain the subsidy and then use that to pay at least a portion of their rent.
Director General, Business Income Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes. Regarding your question on the number of applications for the Canada emergency rent subsidy, according to the CRA website, so far they have approved 470,000 applications for this program. Of course, some of those businesses may have applied for more than one period of the program. In terms of unique applicants, that's 134,000.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Thank you so much.
My next question is about mental health and supports for that. I believe there are some additional mental health supports and funding within Bill C-14. Can someone outline the key mental health supports that would flow if it were passed?
Liberal
Jocelyne Voisin Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of Health
Hi there. It's Jo Voisin from Health Canada.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of Health
There is funding in Bill C-14 to support mental health. There's funding to flow to Wellness Together Canada, which is an online portal and provides 24-7 support for Canadians' mental health. You can text, phone and confidential video chat in both official languages and over 200 dialects.
There's that part of the support, and then there's also support for the Public Health Agency of Canada for substance abuse and harm reduction prevention programming. Those two initiatives are supported through this bill.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We will have to end it there and go to Bill C-208, based on the previous agreement.
I want to sincerely thank officials. They took a lot of their time this afternoon for probably only 40 minutes of questions.
I think Mr. Ste-Marie said it right: We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your efforts.
When we look back a year ago, when the calls were set up at night, there were always officials on those calls. For the government to roll out a program, it meant we were going to have to fix it as we went, and you were the folks trying to fix it and make the changes. Members of all parties had the opportunity to question you folks well into the night on those calls. I want to sincerely thank you for what you have done for the country over the last year, and thank you for your efforts going forward.
With that, we will release all the witnesses except Mr. McGowan, and I believe Mr. Porter is here now as well.
Thank you very much.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We will now go to Bill C-208, Mr. Maguire's bill, an act to amend the Income Tax Act regarding the transfer of a small business or family farm or fishing corporation.
We have, from—
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
Wayne, I'm really sorry to interrupt you again. If I may, just for clarity, the notice of this meeting did not include the clause-by-clause vote on the bill. It was our understanding that this was the reason we swapped our schedule, so that we could actually dispense with this bill and complete it today. If a motion is required to add that, I will move that now.
I would like to have questions with officials, but at the same time I think it's critical that we actually complete our committee responsibilities to this bill today. I don't know what time frame you want to put on it. Could you give us the plan for the next 45 minutes? If that requires a motion, I will make the motion.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Okay. I see Mr. Ste-Marie on this.
Just to answer Pat's question first, Gabriel, I do think we certainly need to hear from officials. If their points show that there should be amendments made to this bill, and it's the will of the committee that we should see amendments, then we probably wouldn't go to clause-by-clause today. If it's not seen that there are needed amendments, we would go to clause-by-clause today. I have the form here to know in what order we vote.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Could we hear from the witnesses first, raise some questions and leave 15 minutes at the end to deal with your motion then?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Gabriel, are you okay with that? Okay.
All right, Mr. McGowan or Mr. Porter, I don't know who's on deck to say a few words.
Shawn Porter Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Mr. Chair, I'll start, if that's fine.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Our plan was that I would spend a few minutes providing a little bit in the way of opening remarks and context-setting around Bill C-208, and then I would turn it over to Trevor to provide a little more detail, in the form of examples, to help illustrate the key points we'd like to make today.
Does that work for the committee?