Health committee  Sure. I think it has already been said many times that the magnitude of the penalty is important if it is to be a deterrent; but more importantly, there needs to be a real risk to manufacturers and distributors that they will be caught. If the fines aren't actually imposed, w

Health committee  I can't disagree with anything you're saying. If you have inspectors under a lot of pressure, you have to respond promptly to concerns and problems. At the same time, you have a lot of work to do, and it's very difficult for those individuals to fulfill their obligations under th

Health committee  You want to know how much.

Health committee  That's a very challenging question. Obviously, there needs to be more money applied to the hiring of inspectors. We have too few now. If we have too few now, obviously, when you add more work for those inspectors, it's going to create a problem, and Bill C-6 will not fulfill its

Health committee  My apologies, but I'm not bilingual. As I indicated, only 5% of the members of the SG group, our scientific regulators, are new on the job and are in a training position. You have 5%, and there are more than 5% of employees who are retiring. So we're not even going to be able to

Health committee  It is a pleasure to be here this evening. We welcome the opportunity to present our brief. The Professional Institute represents 57,000 professionals across Canada in the public sector, many of whom work in the area of product safety. Bill C-6, the proposed act addressing the s

Government Operations committee  Well, if the government builds a major--

Government Operations committee  If the government builds a major building, the spin-off effects are that the employees who work in that building and the other private sector companies that are located around that do business with that government operation, so it improves their bottom line, I guess. It benefits.

Government Operations committee  I'm not aware that the Department of Public Works and Government Services has an issue with the loss of professional staff. Most of the work is contracted out to private consultants and is only managed by the engineers and architects within Public Works, so I don't believe there

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question, please?

Government Operations committee  Yes, I understand. That's what the report has shown. When the government invests in infrastructure, the private sector reaps a benefit from that.

Government Operations committee  If the government constructs a road, the private sector doesn't have to build a road to access their property. Therefore, they get a financial advantage from that. Anytime the federal government is spending money on infrastructure, there is a positive spin-off to the private sect

Government Operations committee  I don't think anyone would have that sort of crystal ball, but certainly the market values of the properties in Vancouver, such as the two buildings that were withdrawn from the sale, have been going up substantially over the years. I'm not sure if that was adequately reflected i

Government Operations committee  It's very difficult for us to understand the whole philosophy behind the sale. We've tried on numerous occasions to get some of the background and to try to understand the business case for doing this. It wasn't obvious to us on the surface, and we've had professionals look at th

Government Operations committee  Just the contrary, we've tried on numerous occasions to obtain information around the sale.