Finance committee  The counterfactual is always very difficult. Certainly we can say that the dramatic supports being provided to households and businesses in Canada and other parts of the world are one reason the global demand is as strong as it is now. It stands to reason that had those supports not been as generous, the economic consequences of the pandemic would have been much worse for a broad range of Canadian firms and households.

Finance committee  There's no question about that. If you look at StatsCan data on labour income, you'll see this very strange development, from a historical perspective, which was that as the pandemic hit there was a dramatic increase in the unemployment rate. The transfer from the government to households was so large, so generous, that you actually saw an increase in the labour income even though you had this jump in the number of unemployed people.

Finance committee  For the moment, a lot of it is global. You're dealing with supply chain pressures and commodity price pressures. A lot of that is coming from the strength we're seeing in the global economy. It's not exclusively that, but certainly much of it, as we see now, is global. As we go forward, we think more of that will become Canada-specific and less of it will be global.

Finance committee  For reasons that Mr. Cross indicated, it's a little bit of a mug's game, because you're comparing different things. For instance, our inflation is way lower in Canada than it is in the U.S., but that's because we don't have used car inflation in our inflation calculations. We are generally in the ballpark of a lot of these other countries, but there is a big definitional issue, which complicates things.

Finance committee  Let me start by thanking members of the committee for the opportunity to share my views with you. Though I am now the chief economist at Scotiabank, I spent the entirety of my career before that working in the policy world. I have deep respect for the role of public policy and the institutions of democracy in our country.

International Trade committee  Obviously, that's something we support. As I alluded to in one of my questions, we are extremely supportive of the gender agenda, and we do so with or without that kind of government pressure. We certainly push that very aggressively in the Canadian context in terms of our recruiting efforts and in terms of our efforts to move women up in the organization and to attract women to the organization.

International Trade committee  There are likely a range of reasons. One is we target our markets well. We have very deep knowledge on the ground of areas of the economy that we think are likely to grow, and we target those aggressively. We have a tremendously capable workforce that allows us to go after clients in a pretty aggressive and effective way.

International Trade committee  There is no question that in some instances EDC competes with the private sector in the pursuit of business. There's no question on that, but by and large we are more complementary. We provide trade finance. EDC does. We use EDC insurance to help provide trade finance to our clients.

International Trade committee  It's critically important to us, and I'll give you a very concrete example of this. In our operations in Peru we have a very large microcredit operation. It's actually a very profitable segment for us. However, as you probably know, microcredit tends to be a credit provided to women, whether it's provided in Latin America, Africa, or Asia.

International Trade committee  I don't have specific numbers on that because it changes through time. One of our strengths, certainly as we pitch to clients, is very much our network in the Pacific Alliance and our ability to tap into that for our clients' advantage. That works both ways. It works when we deal with Canadian clients looking down south, and it works with our Pacific Alliance clients when they are looking up north, and in fact not only up north, but across Asia and Europe as well.

International Trade committee  I'm not the best person to answer that, but I will say that working conditions in Scotiabank—this is true in Canada and the rest of our countries of operation—exceed minimum regulatory standards, generally speaking. I think the answer to that would be yes, but I can't give you a very specific example.

International Trade committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair and honourable members. I am very pleased to be here today representing Scotiabank, and I want to thank members of this committee for the invitation to share our views on the important trading relationship and this exciting opportunity for Canada. Scotiabank, as some of you may know, is the bank of the Pacific Alliance.

International Trade committee  Yes, without any question. I think you have to look at it from three different perspectives. One is the perspective of our not being in the deal and the limits on economic opportunity that would flow from that. There are different perspectives on this, but given that we think the deal is positive, not being in the deal would be a negative.

International Trade committee  I think it would be quite dramatic, actually. The global economic and financial system, and ours in particular, has evolved to be one in which we are integrated with each other. In Canada's case, we are particularly integrated with the United States. If we end up in a world in which the United States alters the rules of the game and decides to put up walls and put up borders, whether they're physical, regulatory, or legal, I think you are fundamentally altering the economic landscape.

International Trade committee  No. Up until a couple of years ago, I think people thought Brazil was the example. What we've seen is that as you erect those barriers and shield your economy from competition to the extent the Brazilians have, it can have long-term consequences, in the sense that things aren't sustainable and eventually they can blow up.