Natural Resources Committee on May 21st, 2013

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

He was an independent contractor, though, an independent businessman.

[John Telford]

I wasn't a contractor.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

That's the issue, that's the difference.

[John Telford]

What do you mean?

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

That would be the difference: you would have these writeoffs if you were self-employed.

[John Telford]

But I'm the guy who needed it. I left home for 10 days' work.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Fair enough, I'm not disputing that, but there are differences. There are ways you can capture that, but you're saying there's a way we can capture that from a tax credit perspective.

[John Telford]

Truly.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

I know many people fly in all the time. I fly back and forth from Ottawa. Flights originate in Atlantic Canada and in Montreal; they stop in Ottawa, pick up folks like me to fly me back home. I see so many people from what I consider eastern Canada, flying to Alberta every week to work.

Has your organization looked at anything to make some of that more palatable, whether it's the EI system or anything else—

[John Telford]

Most of those costs are picked up by the client.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Right, but it's millions of dollars.

[John Telford]

It's millions of dollars.

We used to get an EI travel credit. When you left home and you got a job somewhere, then you let EI know that you were able to secure some work, and at that point they'd pay you a certain amount of money. Guys used to come from New Brunswick to my local, and I think they used to get about 450 bucks. I'm talking about the early nineties. But they would get a cheque from EI for the $450. At least it paid the cost of their coming from New Brunswick to Kingston. They'd work there for three or four months, then they'd go home. They're off employment insurance, they're contributing to the income tax system. It's a win-win, and we don't seem to be able to get any support for it. To tell the truth, we've been pounding that for 10 or 12 years.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Mr. Calkins.

Continuing the five-minute round, we have Monsieur Gravelle, then Mr. Trost, and then Mr. Anderson.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Can I have some of your unused time, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

I'm pretty sure I don't have any.

Go ahead.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

He's used it all, and unlike the chair, I'm not going to give you my opinion, but I'd like to hear your opinion.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

I don't want to waste my time with that.

I've got some good news for you, Mr. Telford. My colleague Chris Charlton has a private member's bill that would cover the exact costs you were talking about, the costs of your travelling to Thunder Bay. I think that's a great idea.

I want to talk a little about upgrading a refinery. How many jobs would upgrading a refinery create for your workers, roughly, just a general view?

[John Telford]

At the Edmonton West upgrade at Scotford, my particular trade had 4,000 people on the job. That job lasted for over three years. It was a 12,000-person job. That's an upgrader.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

You said four years.

[John Telford]

It was a three-year project.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Once this refinery is upgraded, how many of your members would end up working at the refinery?

[John Telford]

The Irving Oil refinery every day has about 185 of my guys working. You can sort of figure the size of Irving Oil.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Those jobs would last for how long?

[John Telford]

Oh, they're forever.