Evidence of meeting #15 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ceta.
5 p.m.
Board Member, British Columbia Dairy Association
My understanding is that under this agreement right now the dilemma we have is on the pricing mechanism we use in Canada, which they consider a subsidy. The WTO ruled a couple of years ago on that.
5 p.m.
Liberal
5 p.m.
Board Member, British Columbia Dairy Association
We would not be competitive.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Then you also mentioned something about predictability, that the industry wants predictability.
5 p.m.
Board Member, British Columbia Dairy Association
In order for supply management to work you need three pillars. One is you have to have import controls. You have to control production and you have to have the ability to set price locally to your producers.
When we have unpredictable access into the country, whether that be cross-border shopping or whether that be importation of fractionated milk products or any sort of products that don't fall within the tariff lines, it becomes very unpredictable for us.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So would something like fractionated milk actually cause a problem in your industry? Would that be material to your sales volume?
5 p.m.
Liberal
5 p.m.
Board Member, British Columbia Dairy Association
Cross-border shopping just in British Columbia on whole milk took 7% of our market in the last five years.
5:05 p.m.
Board Member, British Columbia Dairy Association
Seven percent, and I don't know what that would equate to in dollars, but I would think that would probably be in the neighbourhood of $20 million to $30 million.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you.
Mr. McCauley, a quick question. You stated that your members may go elsewhere if there is.... I think you were referring to the patent restoration aspect or the right of appeal. How would that solve anything if they went elsewhere? If your company is based here, and your members are based here, where would they go?
5:05 p.m.
Chair, Board of Directors, LifeSciences British Columbia
The U.S. or the EU. I can give you all sorts of examples. Vancouver companies that have invested in it ended up in Boston.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
But would they go to Boston because of the patent restoration right of appeal, the legal system, or would they go because the market is there?
5:05 p.m.
Chair, Board of Directors, LifeSciences British Columbia
There's an environment of things that would attract you one way or the other, and there's certainly no question that we have a lot of the components here that attract people. We have extraordinary research, great institutions, all of those elements, but you have to look at the whole equation, and intellectual property is among the most critical assets that any biotech company has.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I agree, and so what would prevent, once the Canada-Europe agreement is signed, your base companies from just moving to Europe because the market is bigger?
5:05 p.m.
Chair, Board of Directors, LifeSciences British Columbia
There are all sorts of reasons why they would want to stay here. All I'm saying is, you need to make the environment at least competitive with the global competitors we have if you want those companies to stay here.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Okay, I do, so would that entail agreements, partnerships, investment? What is needed to ensure that the companies will stay here, because you mentioned that the markets are much bigger in the EU or in the United States?
5:05 p.m.
Chair, Board of Directors, LifeSciences British Columbia
It is absolutely the case that the markets are larger. That doesn't necessarily mean that you want to develop the product in that market. I think what you want to do is create an environment that will attract people to invest here and to keep companies here.
5:05 p.m.
Chair, Board of Directors, LifeSciences British Columbia
That's about making sure that the economic value drivers are here, and IP is one of those.
5:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, LifeSciences British Columbia
There is an interesting report done by PwC for BIOTECanada, and it looked at the membership, and as Gord mentioned, almost 20% would move. The reason why they would move would be the capital. I think if you have that IP protection, the capital would flow here, so that would be one piece. Government incentives are another significant part of why they go and, again, employment and building clusters.
The big thing about building a knowledge-based economy and a knowledge-based cluster is, if you're like companies that Gord described earlier where you've tried something and it hasn't worked out, a cluster allows you to go somewhere else and try that again. I think what we're really trying to say is that it's not just one, it's multi-factorial, but if you're allowed to have the IP protection draw investment here, we'll have more opportunities for more talented individuals who, when they go through the entrepreneurial phase and succeed, it's fantastic. If they go through the entrepreneurial phase and it's a failure, they have somewhere else to go, and that's the cluster that we're trying to achieve.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Mr. Chair, could we get a copy of that report?
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
