Evidence of meeting #8 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
It's probably the city.
President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
Yes, but is it strictly the city that has that role? In rural, what do I do...?
Conservative
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Okay. You've just given an example of how a municipality has provided the service.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
May I respond?
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to say to you that the reason the Canadian government should be involved with this is that the more globally we are pushing everything, the more global our seniors have become as well. Even though they may be unable to drive anymore—one point I didn't stress is that more and more seniors are losing their licence because they can't see—it doesn't mean that they don't want to travel. It doesn't mean, like Lloydminster—
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Excuse me. We are very short on time. I'm curious as to why it is that the federal government is uniquely positioned to provide a very localized service like this. If there's some way we can get an answer to that question, that would be of most help.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
Okay. I would suggest that you do it for cities in their manner. So if you have a transit system that runs from A to B, whether it be anywhere in Canada, then I would suggest they should fall underneath the same....
October 24th, 2011 / 4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
So nobody has been able to tell me why this would be a federal responsibility as opposed to a municipal/provincial one.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
If I may, there are three levels of government. Each one of us gets a few tax dollars, and we all....
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
The federal government has the same source of revenue as the provinces--identical. It's actually very simple. It comes from “Martha and Henry”, as Alberta's premier used to call them.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
Exactly.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
There's nowhere else it comes from, so we don't have access to any pot of gold here in the federal government that the provinces don't have access to. In fact, in many instances the provinces have more, because they get resource royalties--and that's their right, they should. You're from Alberta, and that would be especially the case in your province.
I still haven't heard why this localized service would be provided by the federal government as opposed to a local government.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
Our service is not localized. We run well over 250 kilometres one way to take somebody to a regional facility.
Conservative
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
I'll give you Northern Sunrise County to the City of Grande Prairie. I'll give you our cooperation between Dawson Creek, B.C., to northern Alberta, and links on the Saskatchewan side between Alberta and Saskatchewan. I guess that all I'm saying that if you believe there is room for rural Alberta in a transit system, then we need to have further conversations to help you understand something that we haven't mentioned....
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Don't get me wrong: we're not advocating on this side to intrude into provincial jurisdiction inside big cities either. It's not that we're singling out rural communities. We're just operating on the basic premise that services should be provided by the governments closest to the people, not the governments furthest away. When you start to have this strange layering of multiple players for the same responsibility, it's actually very difficult for the taxpayer to even know who is accountable for the services that they are receiving.
I'll move to a second subject, and believe me, I think it's important that this question be answered if you want your submission to be taken seriously. Where would you have us get the money? Would you have us raise taxes? Would we increase the deficit or cut some other area in order to provide for the funding proposal that you've made requests on today?
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
Well, I would suggest some re-pooling of dollars.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties
I would suggest that inherent in the GST and the gas tax.... Incredibly, as Canada's economy is going to keep scaling up and up and up, then a portion of that...I would suggest that the federal government's taxation side...perhaps there. I would suggest many things. But I'm really not fluent in all the dollar pockets of the federal government, so for me to give you a direct response, I think I would be cheating you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
I have to interrupt there. I thank you for being here. It's always an interesting conversation when we have our friends from the west come in and give us some advice. We do appreciate it and we look forward to future discussions.
We're going to take a quick two-minute recess and invite our other guests to join us at the table.