Refine by MP, party, committee, province, or result type.

Results 16-30 of 36
Sorted by relevance | Sort by date: newest first / oldest first

Transport committee  Certainly, our members discussed that extensively in December 2008 and January 2009, before the stimulus funds were announced. Even at that time, most of our members understood that it would be difficult to undertake legacy projects if the government's intention for this program

June 15th, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

Transport committee  In my job at FCM I spend a lot of time on the phone with our members, who are usually phoning us and asking how we can help them solve their problems related to the infrastructure stimulus fund and to ensure that their projects get done. In the vast majority of cases, municipalit

June 15th, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

Transport committee  The notion is that all municipalities knew the deadline was March 31, 2011. In most cases they selected their shovel-ready projects for completion by March 31, 2011, in early winter of 2009, so it was a year and a half ago. In fact it was even before the budget announced the sti

June 15th, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

Transport committee  I'm not familiar with that specific example, but the situation you've described actually happens in municipalities in any federal-provincial-municipal one-third cost-share program. Municipalities are actually more than a one-third cost-share partner in most of these projects beca

June 15th, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

Transport committee  It will depend on the fiscal capacity of the municipality, but, as I said, all municipalities go into federal infrastructure programs with their eyes open. Anyone who has renovated their house knows that things almost never go exactly as planned; municipalities know that if the p

June 15th, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

Transport committee  Sure. You're right that municipalities didn't receive stimulus funding perhaps because they didn't have projects that could be completed by March 31, 2011; they didn't put them forward knowing that they wouldn't get them done. So there would surely be concern in some of those com

June 15th, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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

March 23rd, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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

March 23rd, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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

March 23rd, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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.

March 23rd, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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

March 23rd, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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

March 23rd, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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

March 23rd, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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

March 23rd, 2010Committee meeting

Michael Buda

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

November 5th, 2009Committee meeting

Michael Buda