Finance Committee on Nov. 17th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Good morning, everybody. Welcome. I call this meeting to order.

This is the Standing Committee on Finance, and this is meeting number 120. We're doing our pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2024 budget.

I'll say, just for everybody who is here, that we actually started these pre-budget consultations on the east coast, and we were able to get out to every province there. This past week, we've been in Quebec City, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton, and today we are here in beautiful British Columbia, in Vancouver. We're delighted to be here, and we have a local member, Peter Julian.

Welcome, Peter.

That's what's great about this. We get to be on the ground. It's been five years since this committee has been able to travel—through COVID, etc.—and it's really imperative that we do get onto the ground, that we meet people at the community level and that we hear from witnesses.

We've also had a record number of briefs that have come to this committee. It's a record number for the finance committee. Over 850 briefs have come in from witnesses. Not everybody has an opportunity to be at the table, but I know that you speak for many constituents and your stakeholders.

We also have something on this committee that I find is quite pioneering—and it's good that we're out here on the west coast—and that is something called the open mike. The open mike gives others an opportunity—because we don't have the space for all who want to speak and want to be here in person in front of the committee—to get onto an open mike. You'll see it behind you. We have a number of individuals and organizations that are going to have an opportunity to provide their statements, their remarks and their testimonies for our committee.

Our members are going to also have an opportunity to introduce themselves. I will say that the witnesses will know a number of the people here, but Alexandre Roger is our clerk, and he is somebody that has communicated with all of you in terms of the logistics to be able to be here. Our analysts capture all of the information that is transmitted, be it through the briefs or here through your testimony. Our technicians make sure that all of our devices are working, etc., including our interpretation devices. Then, of course, there are our interpreters, who are able to provide, in both official languages, all of our proceedings.

On that note, we are going to welcome our first open-mike person.

I have here the vice-president of the Vancouver branch of the National Association of Federal Retirees, Murray Bryck.

Murray, you can go to the mike. Take your time. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

[Murray Bryck, As an Individual]

Good morning.

My name is Murray Bryck. I—along with my colleague, Michael Jolicoeur, over there—represent the National Association of Federal Retirees, which involves 170,000 retired and active members of the federal public service. We're the folks who work for you, with you.

We've already provided you folks with written briefs, so my comments are going to be very short today.

We have eight recommendations for you, and they're as follows.

Number one, protect the rights of older persons, commit to implementing long-term care standards and continue to expand the national seniors strategy.

Number two, implement a national pharmacare plan.

Number three, the importance of caregivers' work needs to be understood and financially compensated.

Number four, act on and implement equitable outcomes for veterans.

Number five, resolve the Phoenix system issues once and for all, and rebuild trust with the federal service.

Number six, expand the Public Sector Pension Investment Board to include a pensioner representative. That will be better for everybody.

Number seven, following revisions to the public service health care plan, similar action should be taken regarding pensioners' dental services plan.

Finally, the last one, number eight, is to act on cost of living issues by prioritizing a strong policy environment for defined pensions and address inefficiencies in retirement plans.

Thank you for the opportunity to be able to address your committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Mr. Bryck, thank you for your advocacy for retirees, and thank you for your recommendations.

Now we will hear from the Greater Vancouver—of course, the grannies—Grandmothers Advocacy Network. You guys do great work.

There are a number of you. Please all go to the mike. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

[Gail Mullan, As an Individual]

Good morning, members of the finance committee.

We are members of GRAN, which is a network of older women across Canada who advocate for the human rights of older women and others, with special concerns for the grandmothers of sub-Saharan Africa. We are supported here today by members of Results Canada and the B.C. Council for International Cooperation.

The world is in the midst of a global hunger crisis, with many millions of people experiencing acute food insecurity and hunger. Canada must renew its promise to increase official development assistance year over year to 2030, starting now. The size of our economy ranks us seventh among our peers in the OECD, but we rank a pitiful 15th in ODA spending.

Canada must increase our ODA and invest in sustainable food systems.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you so much. Thank you to GRAN for your advocacy and for all that you do. You do a tremendous job. We know you often get out to many committees to make yourselves heard. Thank you.

Now we will have the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award program. We're out here where Terry Fox was from. I believe he was from Coquitlam. He's a hero to all of us—to all Canadians and to many around the world.

We're looking forward to hearing right now from Rabiah Dhaliwal, Matthew Boroditsky, Kimberley Brownlee, Shannon Riley, Paulina Louis and Lynne Stanger. If I missed anybody, you can just mention yourselves.

We look forward to hearing your deputation.

[Shannon Riley, As an Individual]

Good morning everyone.

Today, when you consider the budget of the Terry Fox Humanitarian program, think about who was in the room when it matters. Yes, it's a line from Hamilton. Today, you have a chance to fund more humanitarian leaders of the future to be in the room where it happens.

My name is Shannon Riley. I'm an alumna from 1994. The award helped me with my nursing degree. I went on to get my master's in public policy, and I have been working in the fight against the toxic drug emergency in B.C. since 2016.

Thank you.

[Kimberley Brownlee, As an Individual]

Good morning.

I am Kimberley Brownlee. I hold a Canada research chair at the University of British Columbia. I work on loneliness, belonging and social human rights. I received the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award in 1997, which enabled me to run Amnesty International at McGill, instead of having to get a job.

On the strength of that, I was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship and the Rhodes scholarship. The awards set me on a path that I might not otherwise have pursued.

I overcame a difficulty, which is part of that award. I am legally blind and have oculocutaneous albinism. Like other recipients, I am committed to humanitarian action and human rights.

Thank you.

[Rabiah Dhaliwal, As an Individual]

Good morning.

My name is Rabiah Dhaliwal, and I received the award in 2017. I am a survivor of a suicide attempt. For me, this award meant more than just a scholarship. It was truly a form of suicide prevention for me. It allowed me to focus on getting the care I needed, while relieving the constant worry about paying for my university education. It allowed me to focus on the social impact I could have by starting a mental health non-profit, for which I received the lieutenant governor's award.

This award goes beyond academic support. It truly serves as a safety net for youth from all walks of life across this country and positions them to be our future leaders in government, science, academia and so much more.

Thank you.

[Lynne Stanger]

Hi, everyone.

I'm Lynne Stanger. I work at Habitat for Humanity. Equal to that enjoyment is volunteering for the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award, which I've done for the past three years.

This year, we were able to offer 25 awards to over 3,000 students who applied. Of all the committees I've sat on, this is the most difficult one. With that lack of funding, we have not been able to meet the needs of all the deserving students who apply. At the height of the award, we were able to offer 53 awards to students. As you've heard from stories already, they make a significant difference in a student's life, not only at university but with the impact they make in the community beyond.

I'm here today as a committee member and a friend of the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award to ask you to devote that additional funding so that we can offer this award to more deserving students and turn fewer students away.

Thank you.

[Paulina Louis, As an Individual]

Good morning.

We stand before you today as a very grateful and diverse group of current and past recipients and friends of the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award program. My name is Paulina Louis, and I was a Vietnamese boat person who arrived in Canada as a refugee with nothing but a sense of hope. This extraordinary award program altered my life.

While I've also served on the provincial interview committee for the past 10 years, I have had the privilege of meeting these compassionate and altruistic Terry Fox scholars, whose lives were changed by the award program. They have graduated and have since continued to inspire and effect positive change in Canada and beyond.

I urge you to consider the profound impact of this award program and the ripple effects it carries for generations of Canadians. This program allowed us to pursue our passions for volunteering, humanitarian efforts, athleticism and higher education despite facing tremendous obstacles. In a world where compassion and unity are needed more than ever, you have the power to ensure that programs like this continue in Canada.

Please, let us honour the legacy of Terry Fox, a true Canadian hero. Please support the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award program so that it can continue to empower the leaders and the humanitarians of tomorrow.

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you.

We thank all of you for your advocacy for the Terry Fox Foundation. Thank you for sharing your personal stories. Thank you for what you've overcome and what you've been able to achieve. We can see that Terry Fox's message of hope is strong and alive.

Thank you. We appreciate it.

Now we will hear from the Contraception and Abortion Research Team and Wendy Norman.

Go ahead, please.

[Wendy Norman, As an Individual]

Thank you for the honour of speaking today, and thank you for your work on this committee.

I'm a professor at UBC as well as a family doctor, and I hold the Public Health Agency of Canada chair in family-planning research.

I urge you to consider in our federal budget a universal subsidy for contraception. As you may know, B.C. has just offered this, and it should be equitable across Canada for people to have the chance to avoid the devastating effects of unintended pregnancy.

Women and pregnancy-capable people across Canada represent over half our population, and at the moment we have been cited by the U.N. Human Rights Council as having inequitable access to contraception, a dedicated human right. This is related mostly to cost.

Part of the way we understand these inequities and the cost is through sexual and reproductive health surveys. The federal budget in 2021 funded the first sexual and reproductive health survey, which will be rolling out soon in Canada. I strongly urge you to consider, along with providing universal access to free contraception, ensconcing in Statistics Canada as a core survey an ongoing sexual and reproductive health survey so that we have the ability to show our inequities and to address the needs among people across Canada so they can have affordability in their families, support the best starts for the children they've planned and avoid having those 40% of pregnancies that are unintended increasing our health system costs across Canada.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you for your advocacy again, and thank you for your presentation.

Now we will hear from C40 Cities and Juvarya Veltkamp.

Go ahead, please.

[Juvarya Veltkamp, As an Individual]

Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Juvarya Veltkamp. I'm a senior adviser with the global environmental non-profit C40 Cities. Our mandate is to support about 100 cities around the world, including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

I'm here to bring your attention to the need we have here in Canada to make massive, targeted investments commensurate with the need to support the development of green shipping corridors. Canada, as a signatory of the Clydebank Declaration, is committed to green shipping corridors. These corridor projects are really innovation sandboxes that can help catalyze the transition to zero-emissions supply chains and help aggregate demand and get moving on zero-emissions fuels as well.

At C40, we're the lead convenor for two of these corridor initiatives globally, and we've learned about the complexity and the massive need for different innovation and thinking about how to support development of the corridors.

American ports are getting ready for the challenge. The U.S. EPA will help U.S. ports and vessel and equipment owners to access $3 billion in funding over four years. Ports in Los Angeles and Seattle are parts of consortiums that have received over $1 billion each to develop clean hydrogen hubs. To stay competitive, we need, first of all, to make sure the $165 million—with an “m”, unfortunately, not with a “b”—that has been committed by Transport Canada into a green shipping corridor fund starts flowing. We need the dollars flowing, and we need a strong strategy in place to guide how these investments will be made.

The maritime sector is vital to Canada's economy. Port communities in Vancouver and Montreal, for example, can really benefit from investments in maritime decarbonization. They benefit through improved air quality, clean innovation and the creation of good green jobs. We know these investments have far-reaching benefits, positive impacts beyond creating a resilient and sustainable supply chain for goods imported and exported from Canada.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you for your advocacy for the environment and for those corridors.

Let's all thank our presenters at the open mike. I think they've done an outstanding job here before our committee.

All of your testimony has been captured here for our study. Thank you so much.

I think they deserve a round of applause.

[Voices]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

That was amazing. We appreciate it.

Now we will go to the other witnesses who are at the table.

With us today, from the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne, is the director, strategic research and international relations, Martin Normand. From the Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia is the chief executive officer, Thom Armstrong. From the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade is president and chief executive officer Bridgitte Anderson as well as vice-president David van Hemmen. From Metro Vancouver, we have the chair of the board, George Harvie. From Spirit Foundation Financial Technology Inc., we have its chief executive officer, Alex Holman. From The Mustard Seed is director of operations, Treska Watson.

Welcome.

With that, witnesses, you'll have up to five minutes for opening statements and remarks to our committee before we get into the members' questions.

We will start with the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne.

Go ahead, please.

[Martin Normand, Director, Strategic Research and International Relations, Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne represents Canada's 22 institutions offering post-secondary education in a francophone minority context. Our vision is to increase access to post-secondary education in French to establish a true French-language education continuum, from early childhood to post-secondary education.

In the new version of the Official Languages Act, the government commits to advancing opportunities for francophone minorities to pursue quality learning in their own language throughout their lives, including post-secondary education.

This commitment is particularly important, as our member institutions are addressing a pressing issue: labour shortages in sectors that are essential for the development of francophone minority communities and of Canadian society. These include sectors such as child care, health care, construction, primary and secondary education, as well as small and medium-sized businesses and civil society organizations that are actively seeking francophone or bilingual workers.

However, the precarious state of the French-language post-secondary sector is a concern for francophone minority communities, who must count on strong, agile institutions. As for post-secondary institutions, they are seeking to increase the range of programs and services offered to their local and international clientele.

The additional investment in support of post-secondary education in the minority language, announced in the 2021 federal budget, was used to meet specific and pressing needs. Now, post-secondary institutions need permanent support to develop over the long term as strong educational institutions that serve francophone minority communities.

The funding announced in the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023‑2028 in support of the post-secondary sector is welcome and will help address “the underfunding of minority-language post-secondary institutions”, as the federal government states in the action plan. However, these sums fall short of what was expected, and, as the federal government also states in the action plan, “efforts to further support the sector over the long term” are required.

In this context, our first recommendation is as follows. We recommend that the federal government, in its 2024 budget, permanently increase funding to support post-secondary institutions in official language minority communities to $80 million per year.

This funding was promised by the Liberal Party of Canada during the 2021 election campaign, but has yet to materialize. Canada's major political parties also pledged support for the post-secondary sector during the election campaign.

A permanent program with this level of funding would send a clear signal that the federal government intends to play its part in sustaining post-secondary institutions, while respecting provincial jurisdictions. This program would enable post-secondary institutions to intensify their contribution to the achievement of objectives set by the federal government.

For example, our member institutions contribute to increasing the rate of individual French-English bilingualism by offering a unique learning environment and fostering the acquisition of lasting bilingualism. They are key players in the coming collective effort to restore the demographic weight of francophones, as set out in the Official Languages Act. They also contribute to achieving federal targets for francophone immigration to Canada by welcoming hundreds of foreign students every year and by equipping them to apply for permanent residency in Canada, should the need arise.

Our institutions must also be able to recruit and retain French-speaking students. Financial incentives are an effective tool in this regard. In recent years, thousands of students across the country have benefited from bursaries for post-secondary studies in French as a second language. We are delighted that this initiative, announced in the previous action plan, has been renewed. However, there is still no such program for students whose first language is French. This contributes to widening the gap in access to post-secondary training in French. This is a significant inequity in the context of the federal government's stated commitment to achieving substantive equality in the post-secondary sector.

We therefore make a second recommendation. We recommend that the federal government create a post-secondary bursary program for students whose first language is French, with an envelope of at least $15 million over five years, equivalent to the existing program for students whose second language is French.

I thank the committee for the opportunity to present our recommendations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Normand.

Now we will hear from the Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia.

[Thom Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer, Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia]

Thank you.

It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm especially pleased to see my own member of Parliament here. That must be a good omen.

I have to say that I love the open mike part of your format. I think it's a real improvement in the committee process. Congratulations on that.

My name is Thom Armstrong. I am the chief executive officer of the Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia. It is an honour for me to speak today, not only for the co-op housing sector but also for my colleagues at the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association and the Aboriginal Housing Management Association. Together we represent roughly 90,000 homes in the community housing sector province-wide.

In my remarks today, I'll pick up where our written submission to you left off. We all know that the housing affordability crisis in Canada is a complex problem that's been decades in the making, but Canada has been experiencing a rapid loss of affordable housing for far too long. Between 2016 and 2021 we lost more than 368,000 homes renting below $1,000 a month. That's 12 homes for every new non-profit home built in this country.

In the same period, rents went up 20% across the country, with B.C. and Ontario experiencing a 30% surge in rent. In consequence, one in every three Canadian renters is paying an unaffordable portion of their income on shelter, with 13% of them paying crisis-level rents at more than 50% of their income. This puts them just one bad break away from homelessness.

At the same time, evictions remain high. Recent reports indicate that the high rates of eviction are rarely tenants' fault. The data suggests that only one in 20 evictions were caused by late or non-payment of rent. Two in 10 were due to other reasons related to tenant behaviour, the balance being the consequence of what people now refer to as the “financialization” of housing.

High eviction rates paired with rising rents will inevitably increase the number of homeless in our communities. Indeed, a recent homeless count for metro Vancouver reported an increase of more than 30% over the last count. CMHC has estimated that, as a nation, we need 3.5 million more homes by 2030 than the housing industry is currently projected to build. That is just to return to 2003-04 affordability levels.

Now, since our submission, the federal government has taken some commendable action. Minister Fraser does seem determined to use the housing accelerator fund to directly influence municipal housing policy. While not universally popular with municipalities across the country, we do find it encouraging. We believe it has the potential to increase supply where it's needed most while reducing the cost of construction.

The waiver of GST on purpose-built rental construction, while long delayed, is very welcome and will reduce some of the upward pressure on rents. We hope to see further action to encourage more non-profit housing construction. I can tell you that through our own community land trust, in the last five developments, we built more than 550 homes before this exemption came into effect. We paid $5.2 million in GST to the federal government, which could have gone to reducing day one rents in non-profit housing developments. We don't have the profit margins to balance against those increases that a private sector developer would bring to the table.

We're also encouraged to see $20 billion in low-interest financing unlocked to encourage new rental construction, but I have to say that the deployment of that financing is taking far too long, or a lot longer than it should.

In closing, I'll just reiterate the four suggestions that we advanced in our written submission.

We urge the federal government, as an act of concrete reconciliation, to fund the implementation of the urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy that's been advanced by National Indigenous Collaborative Housing.

We urge you to protect existing rental housing and tenant affordability by creating a federal acquisition fund based on B.C.'s rental protection fund. I can tell you that, within the next three weeks, the B.C. rental protection fund will be announcing its first acquisitions. It will be protecting rents in the range of $750 to $1,200 a month for tenants in buildings that are 30 to 40 years old. It will create the seed of a new redevelopment and supply program. That's a model that could be retailed across the entire country.

We urge you to reduce the financial burden on non-profit and co-op housing providers even more by working with provinces and municipalities to refresh the tax regime for rental housing construction.

Finally, please launch the federal co-op housing program that was promised in the March 2022 federal budget. The funds are already allocated in CMHC's programs. All that needs to happen is for the program to get rolled out.

It's the responsibility of all levels of government in Canada to address the affordable housing crisis. The upcoming federal budget is an opportunity for the federal government to lead the way, and I look forward to the results of this conversation and many others.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

We couldn't agree with you more about the open mike. We think it's a great addition. I know you'll have a lot of time to expand on your remarks with your local MP here, Peter Julian, during question time.

Now we'll hear from the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, please.

[Bridgitte Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade]

Good morning, Chair, vice-chairs and members of the committee.

My name is Bridgitte Anderson. I'm the president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, and I would like to start by acknowledging that I'm presenting today from the traditional and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples: the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh.

On behalf of our board of directors and over 5,000 members, we thank the standing committee for the opportunity to present our priorities and recommendations for the next budget.

We are in a period of global uncertainty, and many businesses are concerned about their prospects for future growth. Businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, continue to grapple with affordability in a high-cost, low-growth environment. As the government looks for ways to improve affordability, it must not overlook the pressing need to address businesses' affordability concerns, ensuring that they can not only survive but thrive.

For budget 2024 our priorities focus on three key areas. The first is building a strong foundation for growth.

Our region is experiencing unprecedented population growth fuelled by immigration and internal migration. About 70,000 people a year are coming to British Columbia to a region that is the size of the city of North Vancouver. While this influx presents opportunities for economic development, the substantial rise in population underscores the critical necessity for targeted infrastructure investments. In a recent board of trade survey, almost 70% of our members feel that the federal government's investments in transit, housing and infrastructure fall short of meeting the demands of regional population growth.

To this end, we have our first recommendation: Prioritize and expedite funding for infrastructure that supports population growth, including by beginning funding for the permanent public transit fund in 2023 instead of 2026; enhancing the federal funding in the investing in Canada infrastructure program for regional and local infrastructure; and continuing national trade corridors funding to support the movement of goods through greater Vancouver to the world.

Our second priority is fostering an internationally competitive and attractive business environment.

This centres on ensuring an internationally competitive and attractive business environment as affordability is a growing concern for businesses in B.C. In May, we released a report called “Counting the Costs”. It found that businesses in B.C. will shoulder an additional $6.5 billion in government-imposed costs from 2022 to 2024. To foster economic growth and stimulate investment, the government must take action to alleviate the burden on businesses. A business-enabling environment must look beyond streamlining regulatory processes and an easy-to-navigate tax system to also incentivizing economic investment in greater Vancouver and Canada. A vibrant economy must also include the promotion of indigenous economic opportunities.

Echoing the recommendations we put forward in our written brief, we recommend in our second recommendation that the government enhance productivity by prioritizing tax reform with the ultimate goal of simplifying and expediting regulatory review and approvals to ensure efficiency and a competitive business environment that attracts investments.

Our third priority is ensuring a stable and competitive workforce.

As our economy seeks to focus on long-term stability and prosperity, a strong workforce plays an indispensable role in bolstering business growth and competitiveness. Canada and other markets face a growing skilled labour crunch, and it has become more challenging for our members and businesses to attract and retain talent. To this end, we have our third recommendation: that the government continue to invest in talent, productivity, research and innovation while streamlining the processes for both interprovincial labour exchange and international skilled immigration.

Economic headwinds, public safety concerns, regulatory burdens and an unfavourable tax regime are making it increasingly challenging to do business in this country. The challenges I've highlighted are just some of the many obstacles that businesses in greater Vancouver—particularly small and medium-sized businesses—are grappling with. More details are included in our written brief.

In moving ahead, there is a pressing need for a robust economic agenda that improves affordability, productivity and growth for businesses. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively on these issues with you to ensure our region and nation are competitive and resilient.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Ms. Anderson. We look forward to many of the questions that will come to you.

Now we'll hear from Metro Vancouver.

[George Harvie, Chair, Metro Vancouver Board, Metro Vancouver]

Good morning, and welcome to metro Vancouver on what is a normal, beautiful day for us in November.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Yes. We'd like to thank you for the weather.