Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much. I'm very grateful to be here today to speak on behalf of tens of thousands of supporters, including tens of thousands of Canadians who have signed our petition calling on the government not to move forward with Bill C-11. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, thank you for the question. Essentially, we're deeply concerned about this legislation because it could impede the ability of Canadians to hold the government accountable, and as an organization we focus on less waste, lower taxes and more affordable government. Unfortunat

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. This legislation sets the stage for the government, through the CRTC, to be able to decide what ought to be promoted and what ought not to be promoted as we view products online. So, yes, today the criteria might be Canadian, that is, whether or not something is consi

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. I'll say as Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” If the government is trying to say that they're going to create this legislation and pass this, and then they're going to figure out exactly what the orders are down the line, Canadians shouldn't have to trust that

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. I've had conversations with Professor Michael Geist, one of the foremost experts in this area. What he says is that there's an exception for user-generated content, but then there's immediately an exception to the exception, which he says throws the door wide open,. A

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. There is a great documentary on the Maple Leafs' playoff run in 2021. Lots of us love the Maple Leafs. It's not considered Canadian content and it will go down to the bottom of your streaming service, while Gotta Love Trump will be right at the top because it's consid

Finance committee  Good evening. The pandemic has renewed calls for major changes to Canadian fiscal federalism on pretty well all sides. The motion currently under consideration definitely calls for a reform of current challenges. I do think it's important to look back historically and recogniz

Finance committee  Equalization and the changes we've seen in recent years, as Dr. Mintz noted, have created tremendous problems. One of the things this does is punish provinces that are developing resources, such as Alberta. It also serves to discourage other provinces that have potential natural

Finance committee  Absolutely. The reality is that most of the resource development that we have in Canada is focused at the moment in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but we certainly have the capacity in other provinces. We've spoken about Newfoundland and Labrador and the potential that is there, altho

Finance committee  Yes. I'm very happy to expand on that. That's precisely the issue. What we've seen is that these are areas of jurisdiction, particularly health care, that in the Constitution were outlined as areas of responsibility for the provinces. The provinces, obviously, are doing a lot of

Finance committee  Certainly you could have fewer strings attached. The issue, again, would be the accountability issue. Perhaps it would be somewhat lessened if the federal government said they were going to give this money without conditions, and therefore it would be up to the provincial governm

Finance committee  This is exactly the point. There are two kinds of accountability here. One kind of accountability is that if there are strings attached to funding, the federal government is making sure that the provincial government is doing what the federal government wants. The primary mechani

Finance committee  If I could give an itemized list...?

Finance committee  Well, what we've seen is that there are provinces all across the country that haven't done enough to develop natural resources.

Finance committee  Well, you know, we spoke about some of the projects that could be developed in Quebec, for example. We've spoken about projects in other regions, in Atlantic Canada. I think Premier Legault and others have talked about wanting to get away from equalization and better developing l