Finance committee  I think the former minister in the Chrétien government has already spoken to that, and there is already capital that is looking to leave this country. There is all kinds of instability out there right now. I was actually on a radio show and started getting text messages from a gu

Finance committee  Our members are very concerned about this package of tax changes in total. Again, what we really need to do is take a step back and develop a white paper. I agree with Mr. Easter on this. Let's get the experts in the room. One of the things I personally found very offensive is t

Finance committee  I talked to chambers of commerce across the country recently, and this is probably the most egregious change. This could have huge impacts. It's hard to put a dollar value, but some of them I've seen are $3 billion. That's a $3-billion tax change in 75 days. To come back to som

Finance committee  Not only is it housing stock, but your comments drew me to the farm right away. What's the retirement plan for a lot of people who own farmland, who farm? I've worked all my life, for 30, 40 years, because you're not usually going to get a pension out of it. The pension is that I

Finance committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairperson, and members of the committee. My name is John Hopkins and I'm the chief executive officer of the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce. I want to begin my comments by expressing our shock and dismay about the manner in which the largest tax chan

Finance committee  Our recommendation on the transportation side is to approve the pipelines, and we'll free up some cars.

Finance committee  We could. Right now, without any carbon tax, I would say we are a leader locally on clean coal.

Finance committee  I hear exactly what you're saying, and I come at it a little differently. Our view would be that we need to become centres of excellence, and not just for the country. That's not the point, as far as we're concerned. Our point would be that things like clean coal, which have glob

Finance committee  It would be my hope that Canadians from coast to coast to coast would actually understand the pipeline industry a lot better and how good we are in Canada at what we do. I don't think there is an appreciation across the country for that. We are one of the global leaders in terms

Finance committee  It is not today. Today, apparently, we're the snow capital. For Atlantic Canada, why do we not have a centre of excellence for tidal power? Why aren't we working on that?

Finance committee  Our view is this. What we need, first and foremost, is an economy that is moving straight ahead and gaining momentum. We need to develop a plan to deal with carbon. I'm not saying we don't. There is no climate change denier here, but the way we should fund our climate change agen

Finance committee  As a change of tack, I'm not going to the energy sector this time, but I would say, from our perspective as the chamber of commerce, what we would like to see a focus on is a return to balanced budgets. That is probably the priority for us. We would like to see the government mov

Finance committee  Our membership is 1,200. In Regina there would be 6,500 businesses, something like that, which would have employees and then there are all the numbered companies, which are probably double that too.

Finance committee  For the businesses that are in Regina, I'll try to break it out the best way I know how. There are the steel mills, a major industry here in Regina, so there are a lot of businesses that will cater to the steel company, whether it's pipe or sheet or whatever it might be they manu

Finance committee  Again, not to always segue to the energy sector, but that's what I'm going to do. What's really important to continue to move this province and the west ahead is for the federal government to continue to work on these pipeline approvals and get some of the energy sector moving ag