Finance committee  Thank you very much. It's a very good question. The inequity is that if you sell your own vehicle to Mr. Szabo--

Finance committee  --you are not required to charge GST. If, on the other hand, one of my members sells a used vehicle to Mr. Szabo, then we would have to charge GST in Ontario, that being 13%. When GST was first introduced in the 1980s, this issue used to be addressed through a mechanism that was an input tax credit.

Finance committee  Quebec still has an assessment on private sales.

Finance committee  Not being a recipient of government funding, I would have to defer that to my friend, Mark Nantais.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, good evening. Mesdames et messieurs, bonjour. My organization is the national organization for franchised automobile dealerships that sell new cars and trucks. Our 3,300 dealers represent a vital sector of Canada's economy. They directly employ 140,000 Canadians in well-paying jobs from coast to coast and in every riding in the country.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know you're trying to keep a tight leash on time, so I'll be brief. First of all, I am very happy that I'm not designing the program. The government has seen fit, obviously, to bring greater minds than mine to that task. However, I would make the point I made at the industry stakeholder and government meeting last Friday.

Finance committee  Thank you. There has been movement. The movement, unfortunately, has been contraction. The banks have further contracted and are moving away from our industry almost totally. We have seen banks change the terms of reference for loans prior to closing dates on properties and so on, literally walking in and saying unfortunately, because of changing conditions, we will have to modify the terms of our negotiation on the deal we had.

Finance committee  That's an excellent question, and thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to put that on the record. We actually attended a meeting on Friday, March 6. It was an all-day meeting at which there were 125 participants representing BDC. BDC has been charged by the Government of Canada to oversee and handle this project with regard to the Canadian secured credit facility.

Finance committee  The primary intention of the $12 billion fund will be to render liquid the captive finance companies and the private finance companies that supply the dealership network so that they in turn can help these dealers support their inventories at more competitive rates than those being asked for by banks right now.

Finance committee  That is where the money will go.

Finance committee  Any delay in making the $12 billion trickle into the real economy would have devastating effects on the dealer network in the country for a couple of reasons. Number one, there is definitely a credit drought right now, so dealers are unable to finance their operations. The timing of this is particularly crucial, because since November and running right through until early spring we have been in the period of the year where vehicles are typically not sold even at the best of times.

Finance committee  Thank you for that.

Finance committee  No, we're not here to speak on behalf of the manufacturers. What we are saying is that the current scrappage program, which was initiated on January 1 of this year, offers an incentive of $300. There are more than five million vehicles that are pre-1998 on the roads right now. There are one million 1987 vehicles on the road today.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Laforest. That is a very good question. The primary objective of the Canadian Secured Credit Facility of $12 billion is to make more cash available to the financial companies dealing daily with automobile dealers in Canada. At present, these companies cannot access the financial market.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Richard Gauthier. I am the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, commonly known as CADA. CADA is the national association for franchise automobile dealerships that sell new cars and trucks. Our 3,500 dealers represent a vital sector of Canada's economy.