Government Operations Committee on May 1st, 2024

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is right at the end of the meeting. I don't think we can really do this justice in the time remaining.

I know Mr. Masse came to OGGO at the last meeting and made this point on behalf of our party. There are negotiations ongoing between the labour unions and the companies. There is a real reluctance and opposition on the part of those unions to have this turned into a three-ring political circus, because they feel as though it's going to jeopardize those negotiations. I'll just read specifically from a piece in iPolitics that I believe appeared yesterday. This is a quote, I believe, from Canada's Building Trades Unions. It says,

While we are pleased that all parties are concerned with Canadian unionized jobs, we do not believe it is in the interest of our ongoing discussions in pursuit of [memoranda of understanding] with global automakers for such an expansive production order to be proceeded with at the current time, while sensitive negotiations are being undertaken.

Our preference would be to revisit this issue in one month...[to] allow all parties to conclude negotiations.

I think this is an interesting line of inquiry. I think it is of interest to Canadians to know how these contracts deal with Canadian jobs. However, right now there are negotiations that are sensitive and that are ongoing, and I think it would behoove this committee to respect those negotiations by not proceeding with a document production order at this time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'll go to Mr. Kusmierczyk, as promised.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I appreciate what my colleague Mr. Bachrach has stated. The CBTU's concerns are at the centre of this discussion and this debate. We're unequivocally clear that they see opening up the contracts, especially at this sensitive point, as potentially undermining the conversations they're having with Honda and with other companies.

More than that, we're in a situation whereby Mr. Perkins is asking us to listen to and follow him, and completely ignore not just the voice of the CBTU, but the voice of Unifor, which is the largest union in Canada, and the voice of the president at the time of Unifor Local 444 in my community. That local represents thousands of auto workers who work for Stellantis. These are folks who are at the centre of this discussion because this has potential impacts on their livelihoods and their future jobs. They said they don't want to see this happen because they see it as a risk, they see it as a danger and they see it as undermining the very investments their membership relies on and will rely on for jobs. It completely ignores not just the labour side, but the business side as well.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce was absolutely clear in saying that this would undermine Canada's competitive advantage in being able to attract future investment to this country.

Over the last four years, we've seen $50 billion of investment delivered to Canada by this federal Liberal government—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Mr. Kusmierczyk, I apologize. I have to interrupt because I have to suspend the meeting. We are literally out of resources. You will get the time you need. We'll have to take this back up Monday.

Thank you everyone.

[The meeting was suspended at 7:09 p.m., Wednesday, May 1]

[The meeting resumed at 11:03 a.m., Monday, May 6]

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Good morning, everyone.

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome back to meeting number 119 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.

We're resuming the meeting, which was suspended last Wednesday. We are in committee business still, resuming debate on the motion in the name of Mr. Perkins.

Before we continue, you're all aware of the new rules around the microphones. Please keep your earpiece away from the mic in the places noted so we can protect the hearing of our very valued interpreters.

When we suspended, Mr. Kusmierczyk, who I see is wearing black in mourning for his Toronto Maple Leafs, had the floor.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Are you sure it's not for his electoral chances, Chair?

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Sorry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I apologize to Mr. Sousa and Mr. Kusmierczyk.

Mr. Kusmierczyk has the floor.

I will start a speaking list, but Mr. Kusmierczyk, we'll give you back the floor. Hopefully when we are done today, though, I do—

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I appreciate it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We are still in committee business. I do have to discuss Canada Post and the estimates. Perhaps we can get through all this today. It's just a heads-up.

Go ahead, Mr. Kusmierczyk.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I just wanted to say, for all the Leafs fans out there, take heart. There is a dawn after the dark. As I said, we'll be back next year better than ever, so go Leafs go. I just wanted to put that out there.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

On a point of order, Chair, I hear that there are a lot of people expressing interest in taking over the leadership of the Leafs organization. Speculation is alive and well. Maybe a new coach will change the dynamic for them.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

They need to go home.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

My Oilers are still going strong, but I do mourn the loss of the Leafs.

Go ahead, Mr. Kusmierczyk, on the EV main motion. I believe we removed the amendment.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I just wanted to say that even though again we're hearing the Conservatives and their divisive rhetoric, let's rally around the remaining Canadian teams that are in the playoffs. Go Oilers. Go Canucks. It will be hard to parse that out this round—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

It's the only time we'll hear them say anything good about oil.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

We're looking forward to supporting our Canadian teams.

We're on the subject of the motion that Mr. Perkins has brought forward yet again to this committee. It is a motion that is almost identical to the motion that was brought previously to this committee, which was voted down by this committee. It's also a motion that is before the INDU committee.

We're here basically taking time away, as I see it, from important studies that we should be discussing here today, whether it is red tape reduction, which is absolutely critical to support our small businesses and Canadians, or whether it's diversity and procurement. Unfortunately, here we are discussing a motion that is recycled and almost identical to the motion that was brought before us and voted down just a few days ago.

But here we are.

I see this as a distraction from the very fact that this Liberal government has brought to Canada over $50 billion in auto investments in just the last four years. That is an astounding amount of investment in job creation in communities like mine in Windsor, in communities like St. Thomas, in communities across Quebec and B.C., and really right across the country. It's incredible when you combine it with the fact that we're not only seeing tremendous investment in the auto sector, but also seeing the completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline as well, which is a major Canada-building infrastructure project that's going to have a big impact.

Again, when you compare that track record of job creation and investment, it's tremendous, with $50 billion in auto, tens of thousands of jobs being created in automotive and manufacturing, and tens of thousands of spin-off jobs in manufacturing and the Trans Mountain pipeline as well. When you compare that to the Conservative track record eight years ago, where the Conservative government at the time lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs across Canada and was unable to complete a single major infrastructure project, the difference between today and yesterday is black and white. It's incredibly stark.

What we're seeing here today is a motion brought before this committee with the purpose of doing nothing but trying to distract from the good news of the $50 billion in auto investment across Canada. I'm talking about the Stellantis battery plant in Windsor. There are 2,000 folks building the battery plant in Windsor right now. When you take a drive down E.C. Row, hang a right on Banwell Road and head towards the tracks, you drive by literally hundreds upon the hundreds of pickup trucks and cars, with Ontario licence plates, of workers who are building that battery plant as we speak.

These are local workers. These are Canadian workers. These are unionized workers. These are workers who are part of the CBTU, the ironworkers, the millwrights and the painters—you name it. They're local workers and they're building that battery plant.

When the battery plant is done, you're going to have an additional two and a half thousand permanent workers at that battery plant who are going to be building batteries for generations to come. Those two and a half thousand permanent workers will be local, they will be Canadian and they will quite likely be unionized.

This is a tremendous story that the Conservatives are desperate to try to distract from.

Then, up the road—if you travel literally an hour and a half up the 401 to St. Thomas—you see another Volkswagen...another generational battery plant being built. You're going to have 2,000 local, Canadian workers building that battery plant in St. Thomas. You're going to have 3,000-plus permanent, local, Canadian workers building batteries in St. Thomas.

At Northvolt in Quebec, you're going to have over 1,000 people building the battery plant there. You're going to have over 3,000 permanent jobs there, building batteries for generations to come.

Of course there's the Honda investment, which is the single largest investment in the history of this country. It's the largest investment in automotive and the largest battery investment in North America.

That's, again, 4,500 jobs supported permanently, with thousands of jobs for building those four factories that will be built across Ontario and across Canada. That's incredible—and that's saying nothing about the Michelin investment or Rio Tinto.

What you're seeing right now is that the world is coming to Canada to build. The world is making huge investments and bets on Canada to build batteries and the electric vehicle supply chain here. It is incredible to see, and it is an incredible turnaround from what we saw eight years ago, when the Conservatives were in power. I just want to underline again that, under the Conservatives, there were 300,000 manufacturing jobs lost. In manufacturing communities like mine, there was 11.2% unemployment and close to 30% unemployment for young—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I have a point of order, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Go ahead, Mr. Genuis.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

The member is obviously repeating himself, but I would also just say, he said this was before the committee and it was defeated. If this member is so confident that he has the votes on this, why doesn't he let it go to a vote? It's odd that he is claiming, on the one hand, that the majority of the committee doesn't want this motion, but on the other hand he's filibustering to prevent it from going to a vote. If he thinks he has the votes, then he should stop repeating himself and let the committee proceed in making its determination on this matter one way or the other.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you.

He's half right, Mr. Kusmierczyk. You are starting to repeat yourself again. Can you get back to the motion, please?

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Absolutely, and I appreciate what you just said, Mr. Chair. Again, I think it's important for us, as we're picking up this thread of this debate, to provide a little context on the path that got us here. That's what I'm trying to do here.

All the investments that I just outlined, that this Liberal government was able to deliver in the last four years, means that we are now, according to Bloomberg, the number one destination and jurisdiction. Canada is number one in the world in the electric vehicle supply chain. It's remarkable what we've been able to accomplish here in the last four years.

We're also number one in foreign direct investment per capita. Think about that for a second: Canada is number one in foreign direct investment per capita, which means we've completely outpaced, beat out, countries like China and the United States in attracting foreign direct investment. What we're seeing is that global companies are showing tremendous confidence in Canada and investing their capital in this country because they see the power of the Canadian workforce, the skills, the tremendous resources we have here and the investments we're making in clean energy and in fighting climate change, and they want to be here and to be part of the action.

Stellantis and LG, a Korean company; Volkswagen, a German company; Northvolt, a Swedish company; Honda, a Japanese company, are locating, putting billions of dollars here. Think about that for a second and about how that challenges the misinformation and narrative that the Conservatives are desperately trying to put out, pump out and hold up there. There are companies from all around the world that want to locate and invest here because they see their future here in Canada too, and they want to build it with us, which is remarkable.

When you drive by the battery plant in Windsor, it's incredible. I highly encourage all the members of the committee to take a drive, to visit. I would love to show them. It's incredible. It is the size of 150 hockey rinks, what's being built there. As you drive by, you literally see hundreds upon hundreds of cars, pickup trucks with Ontario licence plates and local workers building the battery plant as we speak. That's where we're at, and it's important to note....

Mr. Perkins wants us to listen to him. He's again trying to bring forward this motion, which is almost, again, essentially the same motion that we saw last week.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I'm not the one filibustering.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Mr. Perkins wants us to listen to him, but I prefer to listen to the—

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

On a point of order, I have not had the floor in quite a while.

MP Kusmierczyk has been speaking now, over the two meetings, for two hours of filibustering. I think it's Mr. Kusmierczyk who wants the committee to hear from him.