Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for inviting the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada to take part in this study by the committee on Bill C-32. My name is Paul Davidson, President and CEO of the association. Steve Wills, our manager of Legal Affairs, is with me today.

Finance committee  It puts people at higher risk of kidnapping. I will simply say that. And if you want to speak about the measures charities go to, to insure their staff, the fees they pay to insure their employees overseas--

Finance committee  I'd be happy to elaborate. First of all, the presidents undertake that. That doesn't mean that every employee with a salary of $100,000 would undertake that. Secondly, I would just come back to the point about individuals at risk. A number of university senior staff do undertake work overseas at great risk, and we want to make sure that personal security is not compromised.

Finance committee  What I'm saying is the CRA has a mandate; it has legislation, and it's made important moves on transparency. There is more that can be done, but I just think that this is--

Finance committee  If I may respond--and this is based on working with AUCC and is based on seven years of international development experience--we have to take security seriously, and there are--

Finance committee  Yes, the information provided by CRA is not detailed by individual salaries but by groups of salaries and ranges of salaries, and it will provide that information. I will also say that virtually every university president's salary, for example, is available on their website. So transparency is part of life in the university.

Finance committee  Mr. Menzies, I know Imagine Canada is to speak in the next panel, and they may have more information about international comparisons that would be useful.

Finance committee  You asked whether the remaining parts of the legislation are flawed. I think there are recommendations to address some of the concerns and make them more effective, and that's what the weight of the briefs this afternoon have spoken to. You're suggesting that every organization that receives public subsidy or public benefit should have all their salaries declared?

Finance committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. It's a pleasure to be back before you again. Before I talk about my prepared remarks, may I just say that as a front-line volunteer and someone who has served on the national boards of a number of charities, and as someone who has led charities and not-for-profits in three very distinct parts of this country, I take a very keen interest in good public policy and the role of the voluntary sector.

Finance committee  We will be providing the committee and the department with a more precise set of requests as the fiscal situation clarifies. The emphasis in our request this year is for the granting councils. That brings some increase to the institutional costs of research. I would remind members that the global standard is 40%.

Finance committee  You're getting good advice from family members. In building a knowledge economy there are different elements that need to be funded properly, and there's a certain logic to the sequencing. Yes, I completely agree that the priority is direct funding for research, particularly to the granting councils.

Finance committee  Thanks for the question. It's something I have a real passion for. If you look at what Australia chose to do about 10 or 15 years ago, they set as a foreign policy objective international student recruitment to build those kinds of links. They have funded significantly, to the tune of $20 million to $30 million a year of federal Australian funds, to support the work of Australian universities.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, it is a great pleasure to be here. I'm the new president and CEO of the AUCC. Over the last four months I've had the occasion to visit eight provinces and about 30 campuses around the country. Let me say how grateful we are for the knowledge infrastructure program.