Evidence of meeting #7 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was retailers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:50 a.m.
Conservative
10:50 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
You know, there'll be one or two people in the embassy and they don't have the capacity to process the number of applications that are coming their way. So both those scenarios, actually.
10:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Okay.
I'm going through this very quickly, because I don't have much time. Allow temporary foreign workers to work in Canada up to four years. Is that skilled and unskilled?
10:50 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
Yes.
Again, I appreciate you've already extended it from one year to two years--
10:50 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
--and I think if we were able to get the type of bridging mechanism that we're looking for, that may not be necessary. But until that bridging mechanism is in place, we would like to see the temporary foreign worker period extended.
10:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Increasing the basic personal income tax exemption, are you saying, beyond what was done in the fiscal update?
10:50 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
We were looking for the increase that was provided in the November economic statement this year. But we're looking for that to be further increased over the next five years.
10:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
You also mentioned older workers, and that is increasingly happening in western Canada. One of the things older workers are saying is, first of all, especially if they take a part-time position, that they are paying EI that they will never be able to collect. That's one of their concerns. And if they are eligible for OAS, the OAS can in some cases be clawed back. Are these the two changes you're recommending, or is there something beyond that?
10:50 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
It would be the clawback of their guaranteed income supplement.
10:50 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
We were talking about EI clawback. That would apply to more than only seniors. If you have other higher-earning employees who are on benefits, and they want to earn some additional income by working part-time, we think they should be able to without having all their EI benefits clawed back.
10:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you for clarifying those.
For the Retail Council, I wanted to clarify.You mentioned the differential and the parity of our dollar now with the U.S. dollar. But you also mentioned import duties, cabotage, regulation. You mentioned the suppliers' differential between Canada and the U.S. Are there any other factors or issues you want the committee to examine?
10:50 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Retail Council of Canada
I think the training issue. We talked about the training tax.
10:50 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Retail Council of Canada
Not the tax as much as an incentive, I think, would be a key area for us.
10:50 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
Mr. Chairman, may I make one comment?
We do have concerns about the way the training tax credit would be implemented. If it results in having to go through institutionalized training and another bureaucracy being set up, and the type of programs that companies are already providing, if there isn't a way to recognize that training, this isn't something that's going to work for our sector. I want to be clear about that.
10:50 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Retail Council of Canada
In fact, we were clear about that. We're talking about in-house training. We're not talking about third-party training.
10:50 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
Okay, as long as we're clear about that.
10:50 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Retail Council of Canada
I think you need to look at the Quebec model, because I think they really made an effort to try to resolve that ambiguity. It's not perfect, and they admit it's not, but I think it's worth looking at.
10:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Following Mr. Simard's suggestion, I think we will have the analysts present something. But if you have any comments on specifically how it should work, shouldn't work, your advice and opinion would be very helpful.
Thank you very much for the session.
10:50 a.m.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
I'd simply like to say that I have a private member's bill, as a matter of fact, that would prevent the pension income from being utilized as revenue. It is in the House of Commons already, and I think it's a very valid one.
10:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you, members.
Thank you. That was a fascinating session. We appreciate your presentations.
This meeting is adjourned.