Natural Resources committee  That was in the context of the changes made in last year's budget to the SR and ED tax credit. That international comparison was made for the treatment of large companies. It did not include the tax credit that is offered to what we call small CCPCs, which benefit from a 35% refu

Natural Resources committee  Yes. On what you just said in terms of the percentages, the share of energy consumption, it's very concentrated. As I said, there are about 21 subsectors in manufacturing. Nine of them consume 92% of all energy. In terms of paper, the context was that they've had a very hard cy

Natural Resources committee  Well, for example, I know that one of our members, Canfor in B.C., put together a sustainable plant, I think back in 2006, and then they looked at everything. As I said before, they will look at the machinery they use to make their products, and they will look at their plants, th

Natural Resources committee  It's Canfor in B.C.

Natural Resources committee  I could definitely, yes.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the members of the committee for inviting me to appear today. Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters is Canada's largest trade and business association. We represent about 10,000 manufacturers and exporters across the country. My presentati

Finance committee  Yes, we do agree. It's not accessible for companies with more than 500 employees, but it's good for what it is designed to do.

Finance committee  My first observation is it is true there may be a greater imbalance between direct and indirect support in Canada. What I don't have is evidence that a more balanced approach would necessarily have more business R and D expenditures in Canada. My second observation is that part

Finance committee  Do you mean among our members?

Finance committee  Are you talking about the $1,000 rebate?

Finance committee  In an ideal world, I think you will hear us, the CFIB and others say that we would like a freeze in the premiums. In the current context I think, as you mentioned, the 5¢ increase instead of 15¢, and 7¢ instead of 21¢ for employers, is reasonable. The CFIB will have better number

Finance committee  No, I don't have particular stories, but I did hear some of our members say that they were looking at that as a good alternative. Of course, I would say that the major issues we have with the pension fund are more related to pension fund insolvency issues. Some have to do with th

Finance committee  We are quite supportive of the accelerated capital cost allowance. We see it as a great tax incentive for making companies invest more in what you call productive assets, in this case clean energy assets. We think that should be applied to any kind of machinery and equipment used

Finance committee  With regard to capital expenditure, we saw that in the report. I actually read about 45 submissions to the Jenkins panel and I didn't find one that said that the capital expenditure was too complex. I know finance has said that, but I have never heard it once among our membership

Finance committee  I think we have never been against more direct support mechanisms, but we've never advocated that any money into new direct support should be taken out of SR and ED.