Finance committee  I'd hate to be put in the position of either/or, because I think we have to work on both sides of the market. A transit pass encourages people to give transit a second look. It lowers the net after-tax cost of transit and makes it a more attractive alternative to the private auto

Finance committee  Yes, there can be a jurisdictional problem. But I think it's worth looking back over Canadian intergovernmental relations for the last couple of generations. I think the federal government has been able to be active on files that are critically important or disproportionately imp

Finance committee  For example, there is immigration settlement. To the extent that the federal government shoulders the burden, some or all of it, for immigrant settlement, it can be a real help to cities.

Finance committee  Well, that's a mechanical question. The money can go to community groups that provide immigrant settlement services. The issue is that we have a problem in the major cities where immigrants are having a difficult time integrating into the community, getting the language training

Finance committee  John, our brief gives you some particular advice on that. We're suggesting that any change in the GST be used in the renegotiation with the provinces and municipalities on redistributing the fiscal pie of Canada. I think there's an intelligent way to go about GST reduction and th

Finance committee  To put it in the pot.

Finance committee  Thank you, and I'd like to thank the committee for this opportunity. I'd like to start off as my colleague down the table did, with a note of thanks. We'd like to favourably comment on the recent announcement by the federal and the Ontario governments to cooperate on integrating