As a result of their deliberations committees may make recommendations which they include in their reports for the consideration of the House of Commons or the Government. Recommendations related to this study are listed below.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance recommends that the Government of Canada, in accordance with the powers of each jurisdiction:

Recommendation 1

Adopt the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance that are within federal jurisdiction and support other jurisdictions and the private sector to do the same.

Recommendation 2

Adopt a transparent environmental framework with legislated five-year GHG reductions targets to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and publish the government’s ongoing progress in mitigating the impacts of climate change.

Recommendation 3

Develop and implement a fully funded strategy to transition to a low-carbon economy, which would limit some of the most devastating impacts of climate change for our generation and those to come while putting justice for Indigenous people, workers and the least fortunate at the heart of the transition to a green economy.

Recommendation 4

Expand the network of rapid charging stations for electric vehicles.

Recommendation 5

Examine ways to encourage more Canadians to transition to zero-emission vehicles and manufacturers to produce and sell a greater number of such vehicles.

Recommendation 6

Create a rebate for used electric vehicles.

Recommendation 7

Continue to help establish and maintain Indigenous protected areas and conservation areas so that Canada fulfills its international commitments to protect biodiversity by 2020 and beyond.

Recommendation 8

Invest $10 million annually over three years towards paediatric cancer research.

Recommendation 9

Invest $2.5 million to provide all firefighters with mental health awareness training.

Recommendation 10

Consult with industry stakeholders and healthcare providers to help address funding needs to coordinate mental health services across the country.

Recommendation 11

Invest $16 million over four years to enable Inuit, Métis and First Nations communities and organizations to foster Indigenous leadership and involvement in mental health care, and to effectively respond to the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the mental health of Indigenous peoples and communities.

Recommendation 12

Implement a universal, public, national pharmacare program.

Recommendation 13

Increase the federal tobacco tax, which has proven effective in reducing tobacco use among youth.

Recommendation 14

Support the existing work of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) on cardiac benchmarking in Canada to create a permanent national cardiac benchmarking program in accordance with the CCS plan, by making a three‑year investment of $2.5 million each year to enable the CCS to sustain the program.

Recommendation 15

Support the implementation of a new national diabetes strategy based on the Diabetes 360˚ framework and facilitate the creation of Indigenous-specific strategic approaches led and owned by Indigenous groups.

Recommendation 16

The government move forward with dedicated funding to improve access to rare disease treatments in the upcoming fiscal year.

Recommendation 17

Invest in comprehensive home care for people who cannot keep living in their homes.

Recommendation 18

Invest in a national campaign to promote skilled trades as first-choice careers and provide funding for data collection of local and regional labour market information, so that all levels of government, employers, and other relevant organizations are able to better match Canadians with available job and career opportunities. This will also allow governments to manage future labour skills requirements.

Recommendation 19

Undertake a comprehensive review of the Employment Insurance system, including the “black hole” and to guarantee the independence of the fund.

Recommendation 20

Increase the duration of EI sickness benefits from 15 weeks to 50 weeks.

Recommendation 21

Work with the various hotel and tourism associations in Canada to develop and implement a program to address seasonal labour shortages.

Recommendation 22

Replicate the new three-year immigration pilot program for the agri-food sector, which gives temporary foreign workers the option of becoming permanent residents, in the hospitality industry in order to mitigate the negative effects of the labour shortages that industry experiences.

Recommendation 23

Review and update the Temporary Foreign Worker Program by reducing application fees, simplifying the process for workers submitting new applications and creating a path to permanent residence.

Recommendation 24

Establish measures that will encourage recent graduates and immigrants to accept jobs in rural regions.

Recommendation 25

Make changes to the succession planning measures related to family business and farms to ensure fairness and certainty in intergenerational transfers, and that such transfers are done in an equitable way.

Recommendation 26

Address the backlog of land claim and self-government negotiations with Indigenous organizations by increasing the staffing levels of federal negotiators.

Recommendation 27

Increase its support for Indigenous housing, including dedicated funding for northern communities.

Recommendation 28

Speed up work to improve Indigenous communities by:

• Providing clean drinking water;
• Renovating existing housing and building new housing;
• Implementing Bill C-92, which addresses child and family services.

Recommendation 29

Recognize Indigenous police services as essential services under the law to ensure they can obtain stable long-term funding like other police services, and expand these services in northern territories.

Recommendation 30

Include stable, predictable and sustainable funding in its next budget to implement the provisions of the Indigenous Languages Act.

Recommendation 31

Implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 21st Call to Action by providing “sustainable funding for existing and new Aboriginal healing centres to address the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harms caused by residential schools, and to ensure that the funding of healing centres in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is a priority.”

Recommendation 32

Provide incentives for hiring, retaining, and training Indigenous workers.

Recommendation 33

Continue to negotiate bilateral funding agreements with the provinces and territories to enhance the quality of child care services by improving wages, working conditions and training for workers; to improve access by significantly increasing the number of quality, licensed child care services that offer inclusiveness and flexibility for all age groups, based on a planned and publicly managed approach; and to make child care affordable for parents.

Recommendation 34

Modify the eligibility criteria for the Canada Pension Plan disability benefits and the disability tax credit to include people with episodic disabilities under the new definition of disability in the Accessible Canada Act.

Recommendation 35

Amend the requirements for the disability tax credit by reducing the hours to qualify and institute automatic qualification for all Canadians who require life sustaining therapy.

Recommendation 36

Amend the disability tax credit to make it refundable.

Recommendation 37

Eligibility for the disability tax credit (DTC) and a registered disability savings plan (RDSP) be uncoupled so that individuals who are denied the DTC do not have their RDSP government co-contributions clawed back.

Recommendation 38

Include withdrawals from Registered Retirement Savings Plans and Registered Retirement Income Funds that are made for medical reasons among the income exemptions for the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Recommendation 39

Establish measures for employers to support employee training and retention for those age 65 and over who want to work, and raise the maximum income that seniors can earn before losing part of their Guaranteed Income Supplement payment.

Recommendation 40

Increase the Canada Pension Plan and Quebec Pension Plan survivor’s benefits.

Recommendation 41

Extend to three months the duration of the period during which Old Age Security benefits are paid to a deceased individual for the benefit of the surviving spouse.

Recommendation 42

Introduce a fund to support community organizations that advance the human rights of LGBTQI2S Canadians.

Recommendation 43

Invest in veterans issues, particularly to eliminate the delays veterans experience while awaiting a decision regarding their request for financial support.

Recommendation 44

Work with the provinces and territories to create a national public registry of the beneficial owners of corporations operating in Canada.

Recommendation 45

Partner with the provinces and territories to complete all flood maps in Canada to ensure citizens have a fuller understanding of the risks faced when purchasing a home and introduce a national flood insurance program that recognizes the varying levels of risk faced by Canadians depending on their location and relevant demographic factors.

Recommendation 46

Commit additional funding for the Disaster Adaptation and Mitigation Fund.

Recommendation 47

Increase funding for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to strengthen its capacity to recruit and train more officers.

Recommendation 48

Maintain current subsidies for social housing agreements while increasing budgets for building, renovating and remodelling social and affordable housing.

Recommendation 49

Launch a national housing forum that would bring together provinces, territories, municipalities and the federal government to analyze municipal and regional housing requirements and coordinate action on key solutions to affect housing affordability, including both demand and supply-side measures, as well as rental housing and supply and data gaps.

Recommendation 50

Establish a program to provide home energy audits for homeowners and invest in home energy retrofits.

Recommendation 51

Examine the impacts of any plans to make Energy Star Certification mandatory by 2022.

Recommendation 52

Exempt mortgage renewals from the stress-test where the mortgagor has already met the obligations of their original mortgage.

Recommendation 53

Introduce a dedicated fund to assist municipalities that wish to electrify their transit fleets in partnership with the federal government. Investments would be focussed on buses and the required infrastructure needed to keep them operational. Because of the difficulties inherent in switching en masse from a diesel system, a pilot project model offers the best path forward from a technical and financial perspective.

Recommendation 54

Make the investments necessary to significantly reduce the northern infrastructure gap to address the transportation, connectivity, energy, and climate-based challenges Northerners face.

Recommendation 55

Create a green renovation program with a commercial building component providing fiscal support that would cover both energy efficiency renovations and heating system electrification.

Recommendation 56

Allow hospitals to be eligible for green retrofitting funding through various existing and new funding streams, including disaster mitigation funding.

Recommendation 57

Implement the second phase of the Connect to Innovate program and release the funding rapidly.

Recommendation 58

Render small regional airports eligible for the same funding available to large airports.

Recommendation 59

Provide $20 million in funding over 10 years to the Canadian Juries Commission to support juror mental health.

Recommendation 60

Ensure all corporations operating in Canada through a digital medium pay corporate income tax on their Canadian operations.

Recommendation 61

Amend the Income Tax Act to clearly define that income earned by private campgrounds who employ less than five full-time employees year-round be considered as “active business income” for the purpose of determining their eligibility for the small business deduction.

Recommendation 62

Examine the potential use of a tax credit for rural development similar to the Atlantic investment tax credit.

Recommendation 63

Review the rules defining passive and active business income, including the five‑employee rule for small businesses.

Recommendation 64

Examine the use of flow through shares to raise market capital for green tech companies/start-ups and beyond the green tech sector.

Recommendation 65

Examine the use of fiscal tools, such as a flow-through share instrument similar to the Canadian Exploration Expense, to incentivize and facilitate capital investment for decommissioning inactive wells, facilities and pipelines.

Recommendation 66

Encourage Canadians to lead healthy lifestyles by reducing the excise duty rates applicable to beer products at or below 3.5% abv and exempting non-alcoholic beer products from excise duties in order to stimulate growth and investment in this underdeveloped space of Canada’s beer market.

Recommendation 67

Continue and enhance investments through both the Canadian Experiences Fund and Destination Canada to support the diversification and international marketing of Canada’s tourism sector.

Recommendation 68

Further reduce internal barriers to free trade.

Recommendation 69

Ensure the continued integrity of the labels “Product of Canada” and “Made in Canada” by maintaining the current level of Canadian content and continuing to require the imported content of dairy products to be indicated.

Recommendation 70

Ensure that export duties under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, which are imposed after a specific threshold on certain dairy products—milk protein concentrates, skim milk powder and infant formula—apply only to the exports of CUSMA signatories.

Recommendation 71

Provide the Canada Border Services Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency with the resources they need to properly enforce regulations and standards regarding dairy imports at the Canadian border.

Recommendation 72

Meet its commitment to fully and fairly compensate dairy farmers in order to mitigate the impacts of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.

Recommendation 73

Continue to provide dairy farmers with the remaining seven years of compensation, in the form of direct payments, to mitigate the impacts of agreements with transpacific countries and the European Union and include the total amount in the estimates for the upcoming fiscal year.

Recommendation 74

Create a rare-earth minerals strategy.

Recommendation 75

Enhance resource shipping capacity in western Canada by approving new pipeline projects to safely transport oil to new markets, and within Canada.

Recommendation 76

Examine allowing businesses to use Qualified Environmental Trusts to set aside funds for the future remediation of oil and gas wells.

Recommendation 77

Launch a major initiative to modernize the forest industry by:

• Extending the production chain through a program supporting investment in wood processing businesses;
• Supporting research and development in the forest industry;
• Supporting projects involving biomethanation of forest waste;
• Supporting local initiatives that produce added value from forests: foraging, tourism, recreational fishing and hunting;
• Funding the battle against invasive species in all affected regions.

Recommendation 78

Comply with our bi-lateral treaties with the United States regarding the Great Lakes and honour these commitments by increasing funding to the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, starting with $13.15 million for fiscal year 2020–2021 and $19.44 million in fiscal year 2021–2022 and every year thereafter.

Recommendation 79

Provide funding for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada with the objective to enter negotiations with the provinces to improve farm safety nets.

Recommendation 80

Urgently assemble an Economic Strategy Table on Creative Industries to unlock the full innovative potential of these sectors, produce world class content, and share its creative works both at home and abroad.

Recommendation 81

Examine changing the formula for calculating the Canada Health Transfer by adding a variable that reflects the aging populations of the provinces and territories.

Recommendation 82

Continue to prioritize the reduction of government’s debt relative to gross domestic product.

Recommendation 83

Require the Canada Revenue Agency to publish estimates of tax gaps every three years.

Recommendation 84

Resolve the problems with the Phoenix pay system.

Recommendation 85

Eliminate targeted corporate welfare programs. Examples include: $50 million to Mastercard, $40 million to Blackberry, and $12 million to Loblaw’s, etc.

Recommendation 86

Appoint an expert panel to undertake a public comprehensive review of the Canadian tax system through a ‘made in Canada approach’ ensuring a fair tax system that closes corporate loopholes and strengthens the competitiveness of Canadian business, drives innovation, and reduces the administrative and compliance burden for all users of the tax system which may include, but is not limited to examining:

• Succession of business;
• Canada Revenue Agency and the publishing of information on the number and value of tax deductions and rules;
• Tax information exchange agreements and tax treaties that Canada has signed;
• Interest payments that businesses can deduct from their profits, including foreign subsidies;
• Corporations who transfer profits to their foreign subsidiaries;
• Tax regimes that distributes corporate profits using a formula that reflects real economic activity;
• Tax evasion;
• Taxation of digital giants and corporations with no physical presence in Canada;
• All disability-related tax measures;
• Capital cost allowance and other tax incentives;
• Inflationary excise on alcohol; and
• The application of corporate income taxes and GST/HST to short-term rental platform operators.

Recommendation 87

Simplify the tax system for people with physical disabilities and mental infirmities.

Recommendation 88

Require a review of the resources the Canada Revenue Agency has to investigate tax havens and the legislative measures that could force large businesses operating in Canada to pay their fair share of taxes.

Recommendation 89

Legislate economic growth and competitiveness considerations into regulator mandates, where appropriate.

Recommendation 90

Review its policies and programs to reflect the need for the modernization of aluminum production in Canada in order to maintain its competitiveness, and reduce the administrative burden on this sector.

Recommendation 91

Ensure that credit card networks meet their commitments made in 2018 to reduce the interchange and other fees charged to Canadian businesses for the use of their cards.

Recommendation 92

Eliminate transaction fees charged to businesses on Goods and Services Tax and Harmonized Sales Tax amounts paid by credit card.