Industry committee  Yes. It's a complicated playing field. Again, within those 18 different programs through which we might be eligible for funding, the application process takes some time. If I were to apply to maybe six of these and do them myself, it would probably be 40 or 50 hours of work to ge

Industry committee  I've often thought, especially when it comes to international opportunities, that the government needs to have salespersons who can walk businesses through the various stages. We need co-operation between municipal, provincial and federal governments and the conservation organiza

Industry committee  Soft costs come in very different areas. In the jurisdiction I work in, we usually start by meeting with the local conservation authority to see what effect we may have on drainage. There's the conservation authority, and there are sound studies, emission studies, soil studies, t

Industry committee  Sure. SR and ED tax credits are scientific research and educational development credits for work you do. We have not actually received any SR and ED funding. We have looked into it. We've tried a couple of times on our own, and we've been told that we really need to hire a consul

Industry committee  Yes, at the end of the day, we sat down with folks from CMHC and a few other government organizations, and they said, “Really, Tim, if you want to use this program effectively, you have to hire a consultant. We sit down with the consultants and they chat about these different pro

Industry committee  I just struggle with the concept of someone getting a commission to get me access to government funds. In my business, we filed an objection to CRA a year ago, which may net our company $100,000 if we're right in our objection. The CRA right now is taking 330 days on average to r

Industry committee  If there are 10,000 businesses in the same scenario, waiting 330 days for an answer on a pretty basic question, it's really difficult for me.

Industry committee  That's a tough question to answer. It would bring the cost of production down, and we would be far more competitive. Over the years, we've had to compete against offshore companies. There's a huge amount of competition with Asian companies that have very cheap electricity, a chea

Industry committee  That would be another seven or eight full-time employees.

Industry committee  I will always prefer the former, where we look after things and do things ourselves. I don't want any of the members of the committee to think that we're some fly-by-night operation. All our members are members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. We look after ou

Industry committee  We have 70 full-time staff here.

Industry committee  We spent about $600,000 in architect fees, consultant fees, development fees, planning application fees and building permit fees. The building itself was just over a million dollars.

Industry committee  That is correct.

Industry committee  No.

Industry committee  It added 60% to the cost of construction.