Evidence of meeting #87 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ministers.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Thank you.
Do you have an estimate on annual operating costs for the measure?
11:15 a.m.
Director General, Policy and Programs, Dental Care Task Force, Department of Health
No, I don't have it with me. There are certain measures within that amount that would be costed out for Health Canada's component of it. There will be others. You will see, in this part of the bill that relates to employer reporting, that Service Canada will be helping us with enrolment and eligibility. We'll be relying on data from the Canada Revenue Agency, so we would expect there to be some cost there. In addition, we will be relying on the assistance of the third party benefits administrator, and there will be operating costs there.
Some of those elements are still being worked through to understand exactly what the cost will be. We don't have a firm estimate at this time. There are broad estimates included in the amount that was provided.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Would you mind sharing the broad estimates with the committee in writing following the meeting?
11:15 a.m.
Director General, Policy and Programs, Dental Care Task Force, Department of Health
Yes. I don't have that with me, but we're happy to come back.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
MP Chambers, you still have an extra minute. You're good? Thank you.
We're going to the Liberals and MP MacDonald for six minutes, please.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses who are here today.
I want to talk a bit about division 13, which amends the Canada pension plan to allow the Minister of National Revenue to make available information to the Minister of Employment and Social Development.
What types of information is the Minister of National Revenue currently sharing with the Minister of Employment and Social Development?
11:15 a.m.
Neil Leblanc Director, Canada Pension Plan Policy and Legislation, Income Security and Social Development Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
This is Neal Leblanc. I'm the director of CPP policy and legislation at Employment and Social Development Canada.
At the moment, the information being collected by the Minister of National Revenue and shared for the purposes of the Canada pension plan is only the data necessary to calculate benefits. It's effectively information related specifically to pensionable earnings to CPP and contributions, in addition to some very basic demographic information.
The goal of this is to put us back where we had been in the past when we had access to data that allowed us to see a more fulsome picture of Canadians to get an idea, for instance, of how much the Canada pension plan represents of that person's total income in retirement.
It would put us in the same position that the old age security pension program and employment insurance employment program are in, in terms of being able to use other data collected by CRA in order to do program evaluation and policy work.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
Mr. Leblanc, you said that basically this was done previously but now you want to go back to it. Are there new types of information?
11:15 a.m.
Director, Canada Pension Plan Policy and Legislation, Income Security and Social Development Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
No. Specifically what's happened here is that this is a clarification to the legislation that we were asked to make by the Canada Revenue Agency.
We used to have access to this data. They had since determined that the wording in the legislation could be interpreted that we did not. The intent of this is to make it explicit that we do have access to this data for these specific purposes.
11:15 a.m.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
My apologies for interrupting, Mr. MacDonald.
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
11:15 a.m.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
The audio quality isn't good enough for the interpreters to interpret.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Mr. Leblanc, we're having some difficulty with your sound for the interpreters. I think it's pretty clear, but maybe you could speak more slowly. That may help.
For all the witnesses and members, at the last meeting we had at this committee, we were having trouble with feedback that was coming back between the earpiece and the mikes, so just keep any devices you may have with you away from each other and away from the mikes.
Maybe we can try Mr. Leblanc just to see if speaking slowly works.
Go ahead.
11:15 a.m.
Director, Canada Pension Plan Policy and Legislation, Income Security and Social Development Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
My apologies. I will endeavour to speak somewhat more slowly.
As I said, the reason for this legislative change is essentially to clarify the legislation and to restore us to a point where we had been in the past. It was requested by the Canada Revenue Agency, because they had determined that the current wording did not allow access to this data we had been using—I'll say as recently as 10 years ago—for these purposes. It was a matter of wanting to make explicit that this data could be used in this way, as is the case for both employment insurance and the old age security program.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
Mr. Leblanc, do we have any forecasts for what effects this might have on the CPP?
11:15 a.m.
Director, Canada Pension Plan Policy and Legislation, Income Security and Social Development Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
Having more data will allow us to ensure that the program is more responsive to the needs of Canadians. At the same time, the legislation and amendment formulas for the CPP make it very challenging to change. We need the formal approval of seven provinces to make any changes to benefits in addition to an act of Parliament.
Based on that, this is purely a matter of being better informed and having that extra information to provide better advice to ministers who will be making potential decisions about ways to adapt the program.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
That's perfect. I'm going to change course a bit.
The BIA strengthens our air passenger protections regime to make the process more efficient and to ensure passengers receive compensation from airlines.
Can someone describe the ways these changes will disincentivize airlines from pursuing cases at the CTA instead of settling with passengers?
11:20 a.m.
Colin Stacey Director General, Air Policy, Department of Transport
Good morning. My name is Colin Stacey. I'm the director general of air policy at Transport Canada. I'm very pleased to answer that question.
The changes in Bill C-47 will have a significant impact on how the air passenger protection regulations are administered, in a couple of ways.
To begin with, they are changing the onus: placing more onus on the air carriers themselves. The way they're doing this is.... Currently in the regulations, there are different categories. There are three categories of incident, two of which allow the air carriers to not provide compensation in instances where there are significant delays or cancellations. Those would be where the carrier interprets that an incident is not within its control or where the carrier interprets that an incident is due to safety.
Those categories will disappear, and instead there will be more onus on the carriers themselves to provide compensation in all incidents, except for those incidents that are deemed to be exceptional. A specific list will be articulated in the regulations themselves. As a result of that, to begin with, there will be fewer complaints.
In addition, the legislation will require that the air carriers cover the costs of complaints that go forward, and that are within scope to go forward, to the Canadian Transportation Agency. Once again, that will provide an additional incentive for the carriers to address complaints directly with passengers before they get passed over to the Canadian Transportation Agency. On top of that, I note there will be a specific timeline required for the air carriers to address those complaints with passengers.
Those are various ways in which we would expect there to be fewer complaints. Beyond that, I note there will also be an improvement in the process so that those complaints will be addressed more quickly.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, Mr. MacDonald.
Now we will move to the Bloc and MP Ste-Marie for six minutes.
11:20 a.m.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to all the senior officials joining us in person and remotely. We really appreciate the work you do.
My first questions are for the Privy Council officials in relation to division 31 of Bill C‑47.
Basically, division 31—