Evidence of meeting #130 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was subcommittee.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Giroux, in international trade agreements we have carbon pricing built in. Did you take it into consideration in your analysis that Canada would ultimately be at stake to also build in their carbon price?
12:20 p.m.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
You're probably referring—
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
If you're talking about the global impact you talked about earlier, that's part of our trade agreements. Is that correct?
12:20 p.m.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
You're right. You're probably referring to the EU border price adjustment with respect to the carbon pricing of some countries. It will be coming into effect on January 1, 2026—
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
If we don't do that, there will be a price built in. Is that correct?
12:20 p.m.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
That's the current plan in the European Union and member countries for some specific industries. I think it's steel, cement and a couple of other industries.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
We're trying to increase our competitiveness. We've been quite engaged in foreign direct investment through the auto sector. We've been gaining quite a bit with other sectors of the economy and other sectors of the world as well as other jurisdictions because of our carbon pricing. It's also provided an incentive for the green economy.
Would you say that certain provinces have built in alternative sources of energy as a result and are making quite a bit of money in that clean space?
12:20 p.m.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I think we're seeing the electricity grid being decarbonized in many jurisdictions and that's as a result of their transition to a greener economy and a less fossil fuel-intensive economy.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you very much. We got three different folks in on that one intervention.
Mr. Giroux, Mr. Matier and Ms. Giswold, it's always a pleasure to have you with us. If you don't mind, I have a couple of quick questions, very simple ones.
Did I hear correctly, Mr. Giroux, when you were saying between the supplementary (A)s and the mains, we will have at least as much as, if not more, than last year for consultant expenditures?
12:20 p.m.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I may have misexplained myself or misexpressed myself.
What I mean is that between supplementary estimates (A), (B) and (C), we could end up at the same level of authorities as last year or even higher, but we won't know that for sure until we see the supplementary (B)s and (C)s.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Great.
In the supplementary (A)s, there was $1.9 billion for added interest on the debt. The mains are put together, say, in January or in February. Between February and then the supplementary (A)s coming out, just two months later, how could you explain a $1.9-billion difference in their forecast from the mains?
12:25 p.m.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
I think it's related to the effective interest rate on the stock of debt that turned out to be higher than expected at the time of the putting together of the main estimates. You're correct. It's a bit surprising, but it's not entirely surprising given it's a stock of debt of well over $1.6 billion.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
It would have been just some change on the short-term debt. Is that correct?
June 17th, 2024 / 12:25 p.m.
Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Yes.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
That's wonderful. Thank you again.
I wish you all a wonderful summer, and we'll see you back probably the second week of July for more meetings. I'm kidding.
To our witnesses, we excuse you. Again, thanks very much.
Colleagues, I have to get to a budget vote, please. We have $1,000 for meals and then $750 for headsets for the supplementary estimates. Are we all good with that?
12:25 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you very much.
I had a request to release some documents from the McKinsey study. There was a request for the Department of Finance to release a series of written exchanges it had with us last year as part of the McKinsey study. Information that would be released includes correspondence from me in relation to motions for the production of papers passed by the committee and emails from the committee clerk with various parliamentary liaison officers working in the government finance portfolio for scheduling the appearance of officials.
Our clerk, who is unfortunately off sick today, has looked through the materials very carefully. He says that there's no material that is of a sensitive nature and that it does not pertain to in camera deliberations. He recommends that we seek committee approval to release this ATIP. I believe we should.
12:25 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
That's wonderful. Thank you very much.
I have one last thing. On the Canada Post study—unfortunately, Mr. Bachrach is not with us—we originally had x number of hours put aside for the motion. We're not going to reach that, but Mr. Bachrach has requested that we have a meeting Wednesday with our last witnesses to do that and then turn it over to the analysts to prepare the report over the summer.
I'm seeking everyone's approval for Mr. Bachrach's proposal that we eliminate, I think, three hours of the study.
12:25 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
The original motion, I think, was for eight hours of study. We're only going to reach, I think, five hours. We'll have five with the last—
