Evidence of meeting #49 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 smes.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Laurin Liu NDP Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
I'll start with the round and with a question for Mr. Walker.
In terms of the social mandate of the companies that you represent and the positive impacts they hope to make in communities, and in terms of the trading partners that Canada is choosing, do you think that human rights standards and environmental standards should play a part in the kind of countries that we negotiate trade deals with?
4:15 p.m.
Managing Editor, SocialFinance.ca, and Communications Associate, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
I think that certainly within countries, our businesses can make choices regardless of what the policy is. I'll give you an example of a really fantastic B corp that is operated just outside of Toronto. It's called Oliberté. They are the world's first fair trade shoe factory. They operate in Ethiopia and Rwanda, but they choose to work very closely with the community to have their factory inspected so a Rana Plaza or something that tragic doesn't happen in their factory. They pay their workers three times the legal minimum wage. They have a maternity and paternity leave for their workers. Because of the markup in retail fashion, they still manage to net quite a good profit. I think that we can take our principles that we hold dear in Canada and apply them through companies to kind of evangelize good corporate practice in that way.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Laurin Liu NDP Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
You mentioned that Canada was number two in terms of B corps. You mentioned that one of your recommendations would be to develop legislation around B corps. What would Canada be looking at in terms of best models around the world? You mentioned Brazil quickly.
4:15 p.m.
Managing Editor, SocialFinance.ca, and Communications Associate, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
There are a few countries that have B corp legislation on the tarmac, so to speak. The best example, as I said before, is the United States. There are 27 states with B corp legislation, plus DC. Every state has its own sort of unique wrinkle, but for the most part the legislation is very uniform in order to be applied across different jurisdictions and mean the same thing. Basically, the three prongs are purpose, accountability, and transparency. Is there purpose in your business? Do you work to better the environment? Do you treat your workers well? Do you work well within your community?
Is accountability baked into your company? We work with a couple of B corps that are tech companies. If you are a tech company that has really great practice with paid leave, for example, and you are acquired by a Silicon Valley giant that might not be as family-friendly as Google, does that mean that your policies are going to go away? No, it doesn't, because they are baked into your corporate articles with B corp legislation, and you can't do that any other way.
Transparency means that there is a report every year to make sure that your company is behaving properly.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Marc-André Morin NDP Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Mr. Walker, I doubt if you are in a position to know your 1,200 members personally, but I wonder whether you know approximately what percentage of your members’ sales is for the export market.
4:15 p.m.
Managing Editor, SocialFinance.ca, and Communications Associate, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
That's difficult to sort out because of the 1,200 B corps, we've got 130 here, and 800 in the U.S. A good chunk of them, I would say about a third to 40%, are exporting somewhere. But insofar as the Canadian ones that are exporting is concerned, that's a little more difficult to nail down.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Marc-André Morin NDP Laurentides—Labelle, QC
So let me ask you an even trickier question. Do you have an idea of the proportion of your members’ sales that is made up of value-added products?
4:20 p.m.
Managing Editor, SocialFinance.ca, and Communications Associate, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
The vast majority of them are value-added products, simply because 10% or 15% would be something like a consulting service, or a social web design firm, or that sort of thing, but then the rest are largely companies that produce things—widgets—for folks to use. Then you're talking about a method that makes some home cleaning supplies, that's an international B corp, or an Etsy, which recently just filed for IPO, which is a big B corp story, and all their sellers make things and sell them to folks. So it's a large percentage.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I also want to thank our witnesses for taking the time to be with us to help us with this important study.
Ms. Ramji, you mentioned that you used the services of the trade commissioner, which is great. I was in India last week and had an opportunity to meet some of the exceptional trade commissioners, individuals who are helping SMEs in India. There are approximately, I believe, 42 working out of seven different offices in India. How did you find out about the trade commissioner services that are available for SMEs?
4:20 p.m.
Director, Legal and Business Strategy, Figure 1
I was connected to the trade commissioner services by a friend through business. The regional office in Toronto sat down with us and told us about all the other offices around the world and the possibilities of working with them.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
Thank you.
This question goes to both of you. Do you feel most SMEs that are looking to export their product into other parts of the world are aware of different services, different kinds of help that's available to them, especially to do with the federal government?
4:20 p.m.
Director, Legal and Business Strategy, Figure 1
I would say that most companies don't know what's available out there for them.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
Do you have any suggestions on how the government can do a better job in creating that awareness and providing that information for SMEs that may be looking for that?
4:20 p.m.
Director, Legal and Business Strategy, Figure 1
I think some of the things that you started to do, such as putting trade commissioner services in incubators—I know there's an office in MaRS—were good first steps. However, we would like you to be present anywhere where you have conferences or trade shows with small enterprises.
4:20 p.m.
Managing Editor, SocialFinance.ca, and Communications Associate, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
MaRS works with a considerable number of SMEs, and the barrier is always in getting people in the door. There are so many different services available, from the federal government, provincial governments, municipal governments, and there's a high barrier of entry for people to know. It might be a little self-serving, but I would say to work with regional innovation centres to scale them, and to help them get out to people who are in their own backyards, because it's a lot easier for us to do the work than for you guys to do it.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
I thinks one of my colleagues may have already asked this question, but maybe I wasn't paying attention to the answer. Are you familiar with the Go Global initiative that was launched by the federal government, mainly Minister Fast?
Ms. Ramji, first.
4:20 p.m.
Director, Legal and Business Strategy, Figure 1
We are aware of it. One of the reasons we haven't used it yet is that it's for export ready enterprises, as opposed to providing in-country help once you're already there.
4:25 p.m.
Managing Editor, SocialFinance.ca, and Communications Associate, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
We're aware of the initiative. We at MaRS work with multiple sectors of the federal government on this kind of stuff and we let our entrepreneurs know as well.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
The next question is for Mr. Walker.
Mr. Walker, are there other similar organizations that provide similar services, or certifications, and if yes who would those be?
March 23rd, 2015 / 4:25 p.m.
Managing Editor, SocialFinance.ca, and Communications Associate, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
In terms of the certification piece absolutely, there are Fair Trade U.S.A., Fairtrade U.K., and Fairtrade International. There are a lot of organizations that do certification for organic, or non-GMO, or LEED certification for buildings and that sort of thing. In terms of what we do, which is to certify and to pronounce a value judgment on the entire business, there is not another measure that does the same thing.
