Past Session:

Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
National Finance

Issue 4 - Appendix - 5900-2.36/N1-M-(01)-4-"1"

Foreign Affairs and International Trade

Question: What is Canada’s contribution to the World Trade Organization in Geneva? (Senator Bolduc)

Canada’s membership fees to the World Trade Organization (WTO) are calculated in Swiss Francs. The Canadian dollar amounts for 1999/00 and 2000/01, as represented in the Main Estimates, were $5,285,000 and $5,281,000 respectively.

The calculation of Canada’s share is based on the WTO’s total budget, which is divided by the total number of member countries and then prorated based on the strength of Canada’s economy relative to that of other member countries.

Currently, there is a total of 12.5 FTEs (Full time equivalents), including three locally engaged staff, working at the Permanent Mission of Canada to the WTO. All of these FTEs are charged to DFAIT. Other government departments do not have their own representation at the Permanent Mission.

The total budget allocated to the Permanent Mission of Canada to the WTO is approximately $2,622,000. This includes $1,650,000 in operating expenditures, $87,000 for capital, and $885,000 for locally engaged staff salaries.

Citizenship and Immigration

Question: Additional background information on the write-off of immigration loans (Senator Doody)

Under Section 119 of the Immigration Act of Canada, the Minister may make loans to, or on behalf of immigrants. In practice however, these loans are made in the majority of cases (90%) to refugees and are made to immigrants on an exception basis. Pursuant to regulations, the maximum amount of outstanding advances permissible at any one time is $110 million. The loans bear the same interest rate that is charged by the Minister of Finance to Crown corporations.
These loans cover the cost of transportation to Canada, the Right of Landing Fee (no longer applicable to refugees) and the cost of completing required medical tests.
Outstanding loans as of January 31, 2000 totalled $55,907,988. This total is made up of 28,510 accounts for an average loan of $1,961 (including the loans to be written off in these Supplementary Estimates when authority is granted to do so).
Citizenship and Immigration is seeking authority to write off 3,897 outstanding uncollectible immigration loan debts totalling $2,493,494, an average of $640 per loan.
As we said yesterday, historically 92% of loans are reimbursed.
Citizenship and Immigration has only been actively writing off these loans since 1996-97 when a source of funds was provided through the 1995 Budget. CIC has been playing catch up since, writing off $8M over the last three years of the $14 M written off since 1983-1984.
Also, the Minister is required to report annually to Parliament on the total number and amount of loans made under Section 119 during the preceding fiscal year.
A report is tabled in Parliament annually in September outlining loans made and the status of the program.

Human Resources Development

Question: Was gender analysis undertaken as part of the forecast of expenditures under the Income Security program? (Senator Finestone)

Old Age Security (OAS) payments, Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) payments, and Spouse’s Allowance (SPA) payments are made to all Canadians who meet the eligibility requirements defined in the Old Age Security Act and regulations. Payments are therefore entitlements, based on the legislation; they are not limited by the amounts that appear in the Estimates.
The amounts provided in Estimates documents are forecasts for information only. The Main Estimates provide a forecast of payments for the upcoming fiscal year. The final Supplementary Estimates offer a revised forecast using the most recent information. Public Accounts present the actual expenditures. Although HRDC strives to produce the most accurate forecasts, it is possible that actual statutory expenditures will exceed the final Estimates forecast.
Essentially, OAS/GIS/SPA forecasts are based on the estimate of population growth of the elderly and on the Consumer Price Index.
The preparation of forecasts by HRDC involves discussions with Finance officials to ensure that the forecasts of economic variables (mainly CPI and interest rate) are consistent with the numbers used in the Budget.
The Strategy Policy group at HRDC does gender-specific impact analysis as a matter of course in reviewing existing policies and developing new policies. For example, gender specific impact analysis was done as part of the policy review that led to Bill C-2, changes to CPP in January 1998.
Elderly benefits have been growing to reflect the changing demographics raised by Senator Finestone. Payments for elderly benefits rose from $22.2 billion in 1997-98 to $22.8 billion in 1998-99, which is a $600 million, or 2.7% increase on a year-over-year basis. Elderly benefits are expected to reach $23.3 billion this fiscal year, $24.2 billion in 2000-2001, and $25.0 billion in 2001-2002. These represent average annual increases of over $700 million or about 3.2% over the actual amount for 1998-99.

Comparison of OAS/GIS/SPA payments in Main and Supplementary Estimates

	Main Estimates in $M	Final Supplementary Estimates in $M	Change in $M	Change in %
Old Age Security
2000-2001	18,746	N/A	N/A	N/A
1999-2000	18,172	18,014	-158	-0.9
1998-1999	17,714	17,591	-123	-0.7
1997-1998	17,140	17,096	-44	-0.3
Guaranteed Income Supplement
2000-2001	5,064	N/A	N/A	N/A
1999-2000	4,938	4,927	-11	-0.2
1998-1999	4,817	4,825	8	0.2
1997-1998	4,778	4,742	-36	-0.8
Spouse’s Allowance
2000-2001	390	N/A	N/A	N/A
1999-2000	390	389	-1	-0.3
1998-1999	386	384	-2	-0.5
1997-1998	390	390	-	-
Total OAS/GIS/SPA
2000-2001	24,200	N/A	N/A	N/A
1999-2000	23,500	23,330	-170	-0.7
1998-1999	22,917	22,800	-117	-0.5
1997-1998	22,308	22,228	-80	-0.4

Natural Resources and Environment Canada

Green Municipal Enabling Fund/Green Municipal Investment Fund ($125M)

Question: How can the federal government provide funding to municipalities? Is this not an area of provincial jurisdiction? (Senator Finestone)

The federal government is not providing direct funding to the municipalities. It is providing monies to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to create and administer two Funds that municipalities will be able to access for projects that meet specific criteria.
The funding agreements with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities specify that municipalities need to ensure that the proper authorities, including the necessary provincial authorities, are in place prior to their being given monies from the Funds.
For example, in Quebec, municipalities must obtain Order-in-Council approval from the Government of Quebec to accept federal funds (indirectly or directly). This condition would need to be met by Quebec municipalities wishing to access funds.
The terms and conditions of the funding agreements with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities do not supersede provincial legislative requirements.

Question: How will eligible recipients receive funding? What is the process?

Eligible recipients are all municipal governments, or a public or private sector project partner of a municipal government.
Eligible recipients will initiate the application process by submitting an application to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
The applicant must provide detailed information related to the project proposal (e.g. financial overview, quantified estimate of expected reduction in emissions). The required content of the application form is specified in the funding agreements.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities will establish a Peer Review Committee and a Council to review the applications. In particular:

the Peer Review Committee will provide technical and financial assessments of eligible projects to the Council; and

the Council will consider the Committee assessments of proposed projects, and on a quarterly basis, make funding recommendations to the Board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

The Peer Review Committee will have a minimum of 15 members. Two-thirds of the members of the Committee will be selected by the Board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities from a roster of experts. The remaining one-third will be representatives of the federal government.
The Council will, at any given time, have 9, 12 or 15 members. One-third of the Council will comprise representatives of the federal government; one-third will be Federation of Canadian Municipalities members, and one-third will be technical and financial experts from the public, academic, environment and private sectors.
Based on the recommendations from the Council, the Board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities will approve the projects.

Question: Will disbursements from the Funds achieve a balance regionally and between urban and rural communities?

The funding agreements stipulate that the Board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities will ensure a balance in the number of approved projects regionally and between urban and rural communities.
The funding agreements also specify that the Board of the FCM will undertake to facilitate applications from rural communities to the Funds. This provision recognizes that small, rural communities may not have the capacity to benefit to the same extent as urban municipalities.

Industry Canada

Question: How will Genome Canada funding be distributed regionally? (Senator Moore)

Five genome science centres will be established, to be located in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia.
No further details are available at this time, given that negotiations are still in progress.

Canadian International Development Agency

Question: Why is CIDA involved in the forgiveness of foreign debt (rather than Foreign Affairs or Finance)? (Senator Finestone)

The forgiveness of this debt relates to an international assistance regime that is no longer in place. Prior to 1986, CIDA provided international development assistance to developing countries in the form of interest-free or low interest bearing loans. Since then Canada’s international assistance through CIDA is proved as grants and contributions.
The Public Accounts for 1998-99 (pages 9.27 and 9.28) lists all of CIDA’s remaining loans.
In 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Canada announced the Latin America Debt Conversion Initiative. This program, which forgives debts in exchange for environmental initiatives, allows Canada to meet its Rio Summit commitments by forgiving loans that were effectively expended prior to 1992.
Under this debt conversion plan, countries receive loan forgiveness and in exchange they use a share of their outstanding debt for economic development. This results in local projects in local currency, as opposed to foreign controlled projects that bring in foreign currencies.
When they were made, the loan disbursements were counted towards our Official Development Assistance (ODA). Repayments, when they occurred would first be subtracted from our ODA total but credited back when re-spent, resulting in a zero net impact on ODA.

Question: Total cost for activities related to Kosovo. (Senator Bolduc)

Total costs for the Kosovo conflict are estimated at $505.7 million for 1999-2000 and $332 million for 2000-20001, for a total estimated cost of $837.7 million.
Of this amount, approximately $400 million was for the Department of Defence; $230 million for Citizenship and Immigration; and $175 million for CIDA.
The remainder is distributed among Foreign Affairs and International Trade, RCMP, Health Canada, and CSIS.

National Finance

Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance

Issue 4 - Appendix - 5900-2.36/N1-M-(01)-4-"1"

Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
National Finance