Finance committee  Yes, absolutely, and more employer engagement is even better.

Finance committee  The more money the company has in-house to reinvest in training and in productivity gains, the better. Our members are all small businesses. Anything you can do to enhance the small business deduction would be extremely helpful in those circumstances, in order to give an incentiv

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  We have 17,000.

Finance committee  Just so I understand your question, you're talking with respect to finding additional funding options for public infrastructure or...?

Finance committee  One of the things I think we have to do with respect to public-private partnerships is get the transactional cost down. Right now, because they are so expensive to deal with because of the legal agreements, complexities, etc., you need a minimum threshold of project size or value

Finance committee  Extend EDC's domestic powers: that's a big help to our firms getting involved in those large financing arrangements.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We'd like to thank the committee for providing the Canadian Construction Association, the CCA, with the opportunity to appear before you today. Our association represents the non-residential sector of the construction industry, so we, in fact, bui

Government Operations committee  On the percentage, or what the appropriate percentage is, I think it's very difficult to provide that. It depends on the need and the type of project and its complexity, it depends upon the kind of infrastructure. That really is a function of the identified priorities, but it doe

Government Operations committee  I would agree that it doesn't make much sense to force parties to make that decision right up front, without having a further evaluation done. It would be kind of foolish to burn bridges during that process. To have a more integrated approach makes a lot of sense. Mr. Carlton wo

Government Operations committee  The consideration shouldn't only be, when you're looking at a complex project, whether or not it's a viable option for private financing. I think you should be looking at the domestic market, your supply chain. You should be making other considerations in coming to that decision.

Government Operations committee  In many cases they would still be engaged, particularly if they're trade contractors—mechanical, electrical, etc. It would just be that they may be working for somebody other than they would normally be working for, or there would be another layer of contracts between them, which

Government Operations committee  Yes, and there is a role for SMEs in P3 partnerships. If you look at a typical construction contract, with a general or prime contractor and a number of subcontractors and a number of sub-subs below them, and suppliers, etc., and you look at it as a pyramid, the group most affect

Government Operations committee  Our organization welcomes that kind of scrutiny. To some extent, on the second round of P3 projects that we've seen over the last 10 years or so, it's too early in the game to do an objective assessment of that, because you're talking about the total life-cycle management cost. Y