FINANCE COMMITTEE CALLS FOR PRE-BUDGET SUBMISSIONS

Bul­letin 32/05

Ottawa, July 26, 2005 - The date of the next fed­eral bud­get is cur­rently the sub­ject of much spec­u­la­tion – as is the date of the next fed­eral elec­tion with the pos­si­bil­ity of Par­lia­ment being pro­rogued this fall, and the like­li­hood of a cab­i­net shuf­fle. Accord­ing to a July 14 arti­cle in the Globe and Mail, Finance Min­is­ter Ralph Goodale is aim­ing for the usual bud­get win­dow in February/March, but the depart­ment will be “ready for an ear­lier one if need be.”

Presently, the Finance Depart­ment is going out of its way to lower expec­ta­tions, claim­ing that “the fis­cal cup­board is bare” and that requests will have to be lim­ited to fit these con­straints. The depart­ment says that it is wor­ried that “Canada has fallen 15 per cent behind the United States in terms of pro­duc­tiv­ity per worker,” and that this year’s sur­plus “is only going to be about $400– mil­lion” (this despite the fact that they have con­sis­tently under­es­ti­mated sur­pluses in the past).

It is in this con­text that the House of Com­mons Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance announced, on July 7, the dates and cities for its 2005 pre-budget con­sul­ta­tions. From Sep­tem­ber 26 to Novem­ber 4, the com­mit­tee will hear wit­nesses in Ottawa, Van­cou­ver, Cal­gary, Saska­toon, Win­nipeg, Monc­ton, Mon­treal, and Toronto. For those who are inter­ested, a detailed sched­ule of hear­ings is available.

Under the over­ar­ch­ing theme of Enhanc­ing Pro­duc­tiv­ity Growth in Canada, the committee’s announce­ment high­lights the sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence for a pos­i­tive rela­tion­ship between national pro­duc­tiv­ity and stan­dard of liv­ing, and it goes on to assert that pro­duc­tiv­ity is a major deter­mi­nant of long-term eco­nomic growth.

These premises pro­vide the committee’s ratio­nale for focus­ing the pre-budget hear­ings on how to enhance Cana­dian productivity.

The com­mit­tee is seek­ing new pol­icy direc­tions, and it there­fore invites wit­nesses to share their views in areas such as tax­a­tion, pro­gram spend­ing, smart reg­u­la­tion, and public/private part­ner­ships. The com­mit­tee has also pre­pared 12 ques­tions for poten­tial inter­ven­ers under three Invest­ments in Human Cap­i­tal, and key head­ings: Invest­ments in Entre­pre­neur­ial Cap­i­tal, Invest­ments in Phys­i­cal Cap­i­tal. The ques­tions address the rel­a­tive impor­tance of var­i­ous changes, their pos­si­ble impact, the like­li­hood of pol­icy trade-offs, and key challenges.

Indi­vid­u­als or orga­ni­za­tions wish­ing to appear before the Com­mit­tee should con­tact Richard Dupuis, clerk of the com­mit­tee, no later than Fri­day, August 12th. Briefs must be less than ten pages and must include an exec­u­tive sum­mary of one page pri­or­i­tiz­ing the pro­pos­als and, when pos­si­ble, pro­vid­ing their esti­mated fis­cal cost. The dead­line for sub­mis­sions is Sep­tem­ber 6th. More infor­ma­tion can be found on the com­mit­tee website.

In prepa­ra­tion for the CCA’s pre-budget sub­mis­sion, we invite mem­bers to send their thoughts on key pol­icy issues so that they can be reviewed and, if pos­si­ble, incor­po­rated into the CCA’s brief. If you are sub­mit­ting a brief, please share it with us, and if you plan to appear before the com­mit­tee, please let us know when. The CCA thanks you for your con­tri­bu­tions because they will help us towards one of our pri­mary goals – ensur­ing that artists can con­tribute freely and fully to Cana­dian soci­ety. This infor­ma­tion will be reviewed by our pol­icy staff, and it will help us to craft a pow­er­ful and coher­ent mes­sage that addresses the fis­cal needs of the broad cul­ture sector.

Finally, we would like to remind mem­bers of two impor­tant CCA doc­u­ments that will be very help­ful in prepar­ing your brief. Both Gov­ern­ment Spend­ing on Cul­ture in Canada and Use­ful Sta­tis­tics are avail­able, free of charge, on the CCA web­site. These doc­u­ments offer a wealth of data that can be used to sup­port what­ever pro­pos­als you make in your pre-budget submissions.