FINA Committee Meeting

STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE

COMITÉ PERMANENT DES FINANCES

EVIDENCE

[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]

Tuesday, April 3, 2001

• 0936

[English]

The Chair (Mr. Maurizio Bevilacqua (Vaughan—King—Aurora, Lib.)): I'd like to call the meeting to order.

As you know, the order of the day is clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-13. I'm going to proceed right to it.

Pursuant to Standing Order 75(1), consideration of clause 1 is postponed. There are no amendments from either the opposition or the government side, or any party.

Can we deal with clauses 2 to 33 at once?

Some hon. members: Agreed.

(Clauses 2 to 33 inclusive agreed to)

The Chair: Shall clause 1 carry?

Some hon. members: Agreed.

The Chair: Shall the title carry?

Some hon. members: Agreed.

The Chair: Shall the bill carry?

Some hon. members: Agreed.

The Chair: Shall I report the bill?

Some hon. members: Agreed.

The Chair: Thank you very much. It's usually not done this way.

On behalf of the committee, I'd like to thank you for the work you've done to put this bill together. We certainly appreciate it. As always, the Department of Finance officials do excellent work in providing us with great guidance as we analyse bills. For that we're very grateful.

Colleagues, this next bit will take just five minutes. On Wednesday we're having a round table on cost recovery. This is a follow-up to the report we issued last session. Of course, our report died on the Order Paper, if we can say it, with the dissolution. We didn't get a government response.

We have invited panellists who appeared before us last session so that we can get a update on what kind of developments have occurred as a result of our report. Consideration, of course, will be given to reissuing the report so that we can get a government response.

Second, since we do have a quorum and we can address these issues, Mr. McCallum rightly pointed out to me that we're going to have the Governor of the Bank of Canada, as everyone knows, on May 15, and it would be interesting to have a round table discussion with a group of economists before the appearance of the governor. I require your permission to invite economists prior to the appearance of the Governor of the Bank of Canada.

Some hon. members: Agreed.

The Chair: So within the month of May, we'd like to have a couple of round tables. To add to Mr. McCallum's suggestion, I'd like us to also have a round table of members of the business community to give us a sense of the state of the economy, according to their point of view. We're getting conflicting reports in the media about the state of the economy. So with your permission, I'd also like to have a round table on that.

Some hon. members: Agreed.

The Chair: Mr. McCallum.

Mr. John McCallum (Markham, Lib.): Just following up on my suggestion, the issue on the table this year is that they have to decide whether to continue with the 1% to 3% inflation targets or change them. That's one issue that would be interesting to get some discussion on.

As well, there's angst these days about the Canadian dollar. I think right now, as we speak, to coin a phrase, it's below its all-time low.

The Chair: Yes.

Mr. Roy Cullen (Etobicoke North, Lib.): No pun intended, John?

Mr. John McCallum: No pun intended.

The Chair: I think it's important for us to have these economists come in. I also think we're providing to Canadians a public service, because there's a lot of confusion out there in the marketplace as to the state of the dollar, the state of the economy, and what the future holds.

• 0940

So this is the way it's going to work out, potentially. We're going to have the business community appear in front of our committee. Then we're going to have the economists. Then we're going to have the bank governor. I'm not sure of this, but rumour has it that in May the Minister of Finance may actually come to our committee to do an update.

So when we come back, there could be some very interesting round tables. As well, we'll be sending signals to the community out there that looks to our committee for some leadership.

Mr. Roger Gallaway (Sarnia—Lambton, Lib.): If, hypothetically, the minister were to come, would it be in Ottawa or in another location?

The Chair: I believe it would be in Ottawa.

Any further questions?

Thank you, members.

During the break we'll be sending to you some of those proposals that the researchers have been working on. Take a read so that when we come back after the break we can have a meeting on future business.

With regard to Bill C-18, for the government side and opposition, please forward witnesses' names to our clerk during this week and during the break, if necessary, because we'll be dealing with that issue as well.

The meeting is adjourned.