Government Operations committee  To get the exact figure, you will have to speak to the federal government. However, it is our understanding, from our analysis of the September stimulus report, updates that Minister Baird has sent to our members, and discussions we've had with officials, that more than 3,000 mun

Government Operations committee  Obviously only the Government of Canada is going to have the most exact figures. FCM doesn't undertake its own reporting with our members, for the simple reason that there's a very clear set of reporting guidelines through the contribution agreements that flow these moneys throug

Government Operations committee  If you're speaking about the housing stimulus funds available in the economic action plan, there's no doubt that the $1 billion available for housing renovations and retrofit is a significant sum. It is only available over a two-year period, because the policy objective of that p

Government Operations committee  First, just to clarify, that loan program is actually for infrastructure, it's not for housing. But you're right, the low-interest loan is going to be available essentially at cost to what the government achieves with its own borrowing. It's over a 10-year period, and the 0.25%

Human Resources committee  It's certainly recognized that municipalities are going to play a key role, especially as enablers and implementers. But there's no question that our position is that the property tax is not really the most efficient or effective way of raising revenue for services to people, esp

Human Resources committee  Our action plan certainly supports the active participation of the private, non-profit, and co-op sectors, because we recognize, as you do, that they're going to play critical roles. We believe that some of the most significant value the municipal sector can bring to this issue i

Human Resources committee  I will try to say this delicately, obviously. Municipal governments have a key role as enablers, facilitators, and implementers. There's no question that a range of national policy frameworks have been developed without the participation of municipal governments. We believe the d

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting us here to speak today on this issue. I'm going to try to keep my remarks to five or six minutes, because I know you'll be eager to move on to questions. We are certainly pleased to be here to present the municipal

International Trade committee  Oh, I'm sorry; I apologize. The third principle is one of progressive enforcement. Enforcement of the provisions of any deal should be progressive, starting with non-financial penalties and moving up to perhaps financial penalties. Municipalities are not necessarily going to hav

International Trade committee  I agree that the best workforce definitely comes from your riding. As I said in my remarks, we haven't really spent much time analyzing the reciprocal aspects of this agreement because that really isn't a mandate for municipal government to concern itself with. We really focused

International Trade committee  Well, as I said in my remarks, we don't feel there was much, if any, consultation on the agreement in principle, until now. The new minister made a commitment to change that position just a couple of weeks ago.

International Trade committee  No. As I said in my remarks, it was action by municipalities, starting with the town of Halton Hills, which spoke out on the urgency of this issue, that brought this issue to the top of the public agenda. Before that the government, and I would have to include Parliament, really

International Trade committee  Yes, absolutely. Although there has long been, at an officials level, a joint working group of DFAIT, FCM, and municipal practitioners, Minister Van Loan's commitments earlier this month to our board of directors was precedent-setting. We obviously have to figure out how to make

International Trade committee  It's a good question, and to be honest we don't have a precise answer. I actually wanted to make this comment in response to several other comments I had heard today. I think someone had made this comment earlier. The vast majority of municipal procurement in Canada is actually

International Trade committee  We're sure not experts in international trade negotiations, but certainly our understanding of previous international trade negotiations was that they have not included sub-national procurements. Therefore, in general, provinces and definitely municipalities really didn't have mu