International Trade Committee on Feb. 18th, 2015

[Jayson Myers]

I think a trusted traveller program and a trusted shipper program are really very important to make sure that people can do business.

These are global enterprises today. I got a call when the head of engineering at Boeing was disallowed at the border coming into Canada because he didn't have a university degree. Another example of that is—unfortunately, these are on both sides of the border—BlackBerry. BlackBerry does all of its training in Buffalo, not because it likes Buffalo, but because it's so difficult to fly people into Canada to do training in Canada.

These are some of the problems.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Don Davies]

Thank you, Mr. Myers.

Mr. Boughen, you have five minutes.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Let me add my voice of welcome to the panel for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us.

First of all, I have a comment. I'm looking at your handout. The part that deals with Canadian Council of Chief Executives says it has $6 trillion in assets and an annual revenue that exceeds $850 billion, and it's a non-profit organization. What are you doing with all the money?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Ailish Campbell]

Let me make the distinction clear: our small, not-for-profit business, which employs about 12 people, represents 150 CEOs whose companies are responsible for that $850 billion in revenue and $6 trillion in assets.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

You have a contractual agreement with the companies?

[Ailish Campbell]

The CEOs themselves are our members.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Okay.

[Ailish Campbell]

John Manley is our CEO and president of the board.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

I'm an old math teacher and big numbers always excite me.

Is it continuing to grow? On the fact that you're getting more business, will those numbers exponentially continue to increase?

[Ailish Campbell]

Let me tell you the good news story. The good news story is that the—

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Oh, I think that's a good news story. I don't—

[Ailish Campbell]

Yes, absolutely. The good news is that the Canadian economy of course does continue to grow and, I would note, is redistributing that value across the Canadian economy and Canadian society with absolute numbers of average incomes rising steadily and with our quality of life.

Unfortunately, our membership is capped at 150 CEOs. One of our real goals is to present thought leadership that helps more small and medium-sized companies become the large Canadian companies that are already our members. We'd love to see as many high-growth firms take their place amongst those large market-cap companies that are our members.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Good.

[Ailish Campbell]

The more the merrier.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Has our government helped facilitate that growth? Would you say the factors there were influenced by government?

[Ailish Campbell]

I would say an unequivocal yes and the business environment in Canada has consistently over decades been rated among the best in the world.

That relates to some fundamental factors that have been very stable. Those are: the rule of law; an excellent public service that has incredibly low levels of corruption, which companies frankly face in other jurisdictions; an excellent business tax structure, an income tax structure that taxes the right things, which are consumption and after-profit income, and really puts an emphasis on job creation.

Again, consistently over time we've seen successive Canadian governments and certainly Prime Minister Harper's government committed to opening new markets.

The Canada-EU trade agreement would be emblematic of that. It is, of course, not yet ratified by our Parliament nor the European Commission, European Parliament, and member states. For us that's the focus, for example, over the next 18 months, to see that agreement get over the goal line.

Right now it's theoretical. Just like NAFTA presented a huge opportunity to us two decades ago, we see Canada as having really done the hard work on knitting together what could be a trans-Atlantic marketplace given that Mexico has a free trade agreement with the EU. It needs to be brought up to the Canadian standard and then we can help our American friends with their agreement with the EU.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Just let me finish off.

[Ailish Campbell]

Isn't that a nice business story?

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

What sectors of air transport do you see growing fastest now and in the future?

[Ailish Campbell]

Which industries?

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

I was asking about the sectors of air transport, the whole air transport system. Where do you see it growing? Is it growing faster? Is it coming on stream right away? Are there some hiccups along the way?

[Ailish Campbell]

The Canadian airport infrastructure has made leaps and bounds over the last 20 years. There's a lot to commend in our deregulated system. I mean, you could eat off the floor in some of our Canadian airports. They're absolutely pristine. They're just beautiful and make a fantastic first impression.

We have to ensure we're moving as many people into them, that we're moving people quickly through them. Right now, it's intriguing to see some of the security costs, in fact, that are put on airline tickets, as far as I know actually returning a profit, if you will.

They've become almost like revenue-generating aspects. I'm referring to CATSA and other security aspects. These should be fee-for-service aspects of an airline ticket. Again that visa piece, just making sure that we're as aligned as possible, for example, for in-transit travellers, making it as easy as possible for them to use Canadian airports, so we don't lose that business to the United States.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Don Davies]

Thanks, Ms. Campbell, I have to stop you there.

Thank you, Mr. Boughen.

On behalf of all committee members, thank you to both Ms. Campbell and Mr. Myers for your always helpful testimony.

Committee members, we're going to suspend for four or five minutes while we get the next panel set up.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Don Davies]

Thank you, colleagues, we're going to get the second half of our meeting going.

We have with us from the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Mr. Howard Eng, president and chief executive officer; and accompanying him is Ms. Lorrie McKee, the director of public affairs and stakeholder relations.

Welcome to both of you. Thank you for coming to our committee. As you know, you have 10 minutes to make your presentation and then we'll open up to questions from the committee members.