Bill C-86 (Historical)

Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2

A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 27, 2018 and other measures

Part 1 implements certain income tax and related measures by
(a) introducing rules intended to provide greater certainty with respect to various tax consequences arising from certain foreign divisive reorganizations;
(b) ensuring that the existing cross-border anti-surplus stripping rule cannot be circumvented through transactions involving the use of partnerships or trusts;
(c) introducing rules to prevent misuse of the foreign accrual property income regime through the use of tracking interests involving foreign affiliates;
(d) ensuring consistency between the trading or dealing in indebtedness rules and the investment business rules within the foreign accrual property income regime;
(e) ensuring that the at-risk rules apply appropriately at each level of a tiered partnership structure;
(f) providing that the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness can determine international operational missions for the purpose of the deduction available for income earned by members of the Canadian Forces or police officers on such missions;
(g) amending the synthetic equity arrangement rules and securities lending arrangement rules to prevent the artificial generation of losses through the use of equity-based financial instruments;
(h) ensuring that social assistance payments under certain programs do not preclude individuals from receiving the Canada Child Benefit;
(i) ensuring that an individual who is eligible to receive the Canada Workers Benefit can receive the benefit without having to claim it;
(j) introducing a refundable tax credit for the purposes of the climate action incentive;
(k) providing allocation rules for losses applied against Part IV taxes;
(l) preventing the creation of artificial losses on shares held as mark-to-market property by financial institutions;
(m) revising the rules relating to the non-partisan political activities of charities;
(n) ensuring that a taxpayer is subject to a three-year extended reassessment period in respect of any income, loss or other amount arising in connection with a foreign affiliate of the taxpayer;
(o) providing the Canada Revenue Agency with an extended reassessment period of an additional three years, to the extent that the reassessment relates to the adjustment of a loss carryback for transactions involving a taxpayer and non-resident non-arm’s length persons;
(p) extending the reassessment period of a taxpayer by the period of time during which a requirement for information or compliance order is contested;
(q) requiring that information returns in respect of a taxpayer’s foreign affiliates be filed within 10 months after the end of the taxpayer’s taxation year;
(r) enabling the disclosure of taxpayer and other confidential tax information to Canada’s bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty partners for the purposes of non-tax criminal investigations and prosecutions of certain serious crimes; and
(s) providing a deduction for employee contributions to the enhanced portion of the Quebec Pension Plan.
Part 1 also amends the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act to, among other things, define the term “agreement” as applying, among other things, to tax information exchange agreements and tax treaties to which Canada is a party, and provide for orders to produce financial information for the purposes of investigation and prosecution of certain offences set out in subsection 462.‍48(1.‍1) of the Criminal Code. The enactment also amends paragraph 462.‍48(2)‍(c) of the Criminal Code to provide that information may also be gathered under Part IX of the Excise Tax Act and under the Excise Act, 2001.
Part 2 implements certain Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) measures by
(a) replacing the requirement that GST/HST be collected on a sale of carbon emission allowances with a requirement that the purchaser self-assess that GST/HST;
(b) extending the assessment period for group registered education savings plan trusts that make a special relieving election in respect of their past HST liability;
(c)  introducing GST/HST rules in respect of investment limited partnerships;
(d) clarifying the intended tax policy of excluding books that are sold by a public service body from the GST/HST rebate for printed books;
(e) introducing amendments similar to those to the Income Tax Act to extend the assessment period of a person by the period of time during which a requirement for information or compliance order is contested; and
(f)  introducing amendments similar to those to the Income Tax Act to enable the disclosure of confidential information to Canada’s bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty partners, or to Canadian police officers, for the purposes of non-tax criminal investigations and prosecution of certain serious crimes.
Part 3 implements certain excise measures by
(a) broadening the refund regime in respect of excise tax on diesel fuel to allow a vendor to apply for a refund where a purchaser will use excise tax-paid diesel fuel to generate electricity, if certain conditions are met;
(b) introducing an anti-avoidance excise measure relating to the taxation of cannabis in respect of the rules establishing the value of a cannabis product on which an ad valorem duty is calculated;
(c)  introducing amendments to the Air Travellers Security Charge Act and the Excise Act, 2001 that are similar to those to the Income Tax Act to extend the assessment period of a person by the period of time during which a requirement for information or compliance order is contested;
(d) introducing amendments to the Excise Act, 2001 that are similar to those to the Income Tax Act to enable the disclosure of confidential information to Canada’s bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty partners, or to Canadian police officers, for the purposes of non-tax criminal investigations and prosecution of certain serious crimes; and
(e) making housekeeping amendments to the Excise Act, 2001 in order to ensure consistency between the English and French version of the legislation.
Part 4 enacts and amends several Acts in order to implement various measures.
Division 1 of Part 4 amends the Customs Tariff in order to simplify it and reduce the administrative burden for Canadian businesses and the Government of Canada by consolidating similar tariff items that have the same tariff rates and removing end-use provisions where appropriate. The amendments also clarify existing tariff provisions and make other technical amendments.
Division 2 of Part 4 amends the Canada Pension Plan to modify the calculation of the amount to be attributed for a year in which a contributor is a family allowance recipient and their first or second additional contributory period begins or ends.
Subdivision A of Division 3 of Part 4 amends the Trust and Loan Companies Act, the Bank Act and the Insurance Companies Act to, among other things,
(a) establish thresholds below which the acquisition of control of certain entities, or the acquisition or increase of a substantial investment in them, does not require the approval of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions;
(b) allow financial institutions to invest in the Canadian business growth fund; and
(c) ensure that customers can provide consent electronically to receive electronic documents.
It also corrects a reference to the Insurance Companies Act in the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1.
Subdivision B of Division 3 of Part 4 amends the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation Act to, among other things,
(a) make technical amendments to clarify the method of calculating insured deposits, to remove outdated references, to repeal certain provisions not yet in force and to clarify that withdrawals made following the amalgamation of two or more member institutions or the continuance as a federal credit union will be considered to be made from pre-existing deposits and that the separation of accounts following the amalgamation is limited to a period of two years;
(b) exclude amounts borrowed by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation under paragraph 60.‍2(2)‍(c) of the Financial Administration Act from the calculation of the Corporation’s total principal indebtedness; and
(c) clarify that the liquidator of a member institution of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation must not apply the law of set-off or compensation to a claim related to insured deposits.
It also repeals two sections of the Financial System Review Act.
Subdivision C of Division 3 of Part 4 amends the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Act, the Trust and Loan Companies Act, the Bank Act and the Insurance Companies Act to, among other things, clarify that providing legally privileged information to the Superintendent of Financial Institutions does not constitute a waiver of the privilege.
Division 4 of Part 4 amends the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to remove the right of persons to decide not to proceed further with importing or exporting currency or monetary instruments that are required to be reported.
Division 5 of Part 4 amends the Canada–Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic Accord Implementation Act to, among other things, allow for the application, within the offshore area, of the provincial greenhouse gas pricing regime and to confer powers and impose duties and functions on the Canada–Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board for the application of that regime. It also amends the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to provide that the provincial regime does not apply if the offshore area is mentioned in Part 2 of Schedule 1 to that Act. Finally, it amends the Offshore Health and Safety Act to postpone the repeal of certain regulations.
Division 6 of Part 4 amends the Canada Business Corporations Act to set out criteria for identifying individuals with significant control over a corporation. The Division also sets out a requirement for a corporation that meets certain criteria to keep a register of individuals with significant control and requirements respecting the information to be recorded in it. Finally, the Division includes applicable offences and punishments.
Subdivision A of Division 7 of Part 4 amends the Patent Act in order to
(a) provide a regulation-making authority for the establishment of requirements for written demands relating to patents;
(b) specify that an act committed for the purpose of experimentation relating to the subject matter of a patent is not an infringement of the patent and that licencing commitments that bind the owner of a standard-essential patent or the holder of a certificate of supplementary protection that sets out such a patent bind any subsequent owners or holders;
(c) expand the rights of a person in respect of a claim in a patent who meets the requirements to be considered a prior user;
(d) ensure that patent prosecution histories may be admissible into evidence for certain purposes;
(e) clarify when a late fee must be paid in respect of divisional applications as well as when the confidentiality period begins in the case where a request for priority is deemed never to have been made.
Subdivision B of Division 7 of Part 4 amends the Trade-marks Act to, among other things,
(a) add bad faith as a ground of opposition to the registration of a trade-mark and for the invalidation of a trade-mark registration;
(b) prevent the owner of a registered trade-mark from obtaining relief for acts done contrary to section 19, 20 or 22 of that Act during the first three years after the trade-mark is registered unless the trade-mark was in use in Canada during that period or special circumstances exist that excuse the absence of use;
(c) clarify that the prohibitions in subparagraph 9(1)‍(n)‍(iii) and section 11 of that Act do not apply with respect to a badge, crest, emblem or mark that was the subject of a public notice of adoption and use as an official mark if the entity that made the request for the public notice is not a public authority or no longer exists; and
(d) modernize the conduct of various proceedings before the Registrar of Trade-marks, including by providing the Registrar with additional powers in such proceedings.
It also makes certain housekeeping amendments to provisions of the Trade-marks Act that are enacted by the Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1 and the Combating Counterfeit Products Act.
Subdivision C of Division 7 of Part 4 amends the Copyright Act in order to specify that certain information is not permitted to be included within a notice under the notice and notice regime and to provide for a regulation-making power to prohibit further types of information from being included within such a notice.
Subdivision D of Division 7 of Part 4 enacts the College of Patent Agents and Trade-mark Agents Act. That Act establishes the College of Patent Agents and Trade-mark Agents, which is to be responsible for the regulation of patent agents and trade-mark agents in the public interest. That Act, among other things,
(a) requires that individuals obtain a licence in order to act as patent agents or trade-mark agents and that licensees comply with a code of professional conduct;
(b) authorizes the College’s Investigations Committee to receive complaints and conduct investigations into whether a licensee has committed professional misconduct or was incompetent;
(c) authorizes the College’s Discipline Committee to impose disciplinary measures if it decides that a licensee has committed professional misconduct or was incompetent; and
(d) creates new offences of claiming to be a patent agent or trade-mark agent and unauthorized representation before the Patent Office or the Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks.
That Subdivision also makes consequential amendments to certain Acts.
Subdivision E of Division 7 of Part 4 amends the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to provide that intellectual property users may preserve their usage rights when intellectual property rights are sold or disposed of in an insolvency proceeding or when the agreement relating to such property rights is disclaimed or resiliated in such a proceeding. It also amends the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act to provide that intellectual property users may preserve their usage rights when intellectual property rights are sold or disposed of.
Subdivision F of Division 7 of Part 4 amends the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act to provide that the head of a government institution may refuse to disclose, under either of those Acts, information that is subject to the privilege set out in section 16.‍1 of the Patent Act or section 51.‍13 of the Trade-marks Act. It makes a related amendment to the Pest Control Products Act.
Subdivision G of Division 7 of Part 4 amends the National Research Council Act to clarify that the National Research Council of Canada has the authority to dispose of all forms of intellectual property that it develops, including future rights to such property and to provide the Council with the authority to dispose of real, personal, movable and immovable property, complementing the current provision in the Act that allows it to acquire such property.
Subdivision H of Division 7 of Part 4 amends the Copyright Act in order to modernize the legislative framework relating to the Copyright Board so as to improve the timeliness and clarity of its proceedings and decision-making processes. More specifically, it repeals spent provisions and
(a) codifies the Board’s mandate and establishes decision-making criteria;
(b) establishes new timelines in respect of Board matters, including earlier filing dates for proposed tariffs and longer effective periods for approved tariffs, and empowers the Governor in Council to make additional timelines by regulation;
(c) formalizes case management of Board proceedings;
(d) reduces the number of matters that must be considered by the Board;
(e) streamlines procedural steps across different tariff contexts, maintaining differences between them only where necessary;
(f) amends relevant enforcement provisions, including the availability of statutory damages for certain parties in respect of Board-set royalty rates and enforcement of Board-set terms and conditions; and
(g) modernizes existing language and structure for greater clarity and consistency.
Division 8 of Part 4 amends the Employment Insurance Act to, among other things, increase the maximum number of weeks for which parental benefits may be paid if these benefits are divided between claimants. It also amends the Canada Labour Code to, among other things, increase the aggregate amount of leave that may be taken by employees under sections 206.‍1 and 206.‍2 if that leave is divided between employees.
Division 9 of Part 4 enacts the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act in order to state the Government’s policy of promoting gender equality and inclusiveness by taking gender and diversity into consideration in the budget process. It also establishes related reporting requirements.
Division 10 of Part 4 amends the Bank Act to strengthen provisions that apply to a bank or an authorized foreign bank in relation to the protection of customers and the public. It implements enhancements in the areas of corporate governance, responsible business conduct, disclosure and transparency, and redress. It also amends the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada Act to strengthen the mandate of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and grant additional powers to that Agency.
Division 11 of Part 4 amends the First Nations Land Management Act to give effect to amendments to the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management respecting, among other things, procedures for obtaining community approval of a land code, the lands to which a land code may apply, the addition of lands to First Nation land by order of the Minister and the transfer of capital moneys.
Division 12 of Part 4 amends the First Nations Fiscal Management Act to, among other things,
(a) enable more Aboriginal organizations and First Nations to benefit from the provisions of the Act in order to strengthen their financial management systems and give them access to long-term financing;
(b) address certain administrative issues identified by the bodies established under the Act; and
(c) provide another option for First Nations to access moneys held by Her Majesty for their use and benefit.
Division 13 of Part 4 amends the Export and Import Permits Act to give the Minister of Foreign Affairs the authority to issue an import allocation for goods that are included on the Import Control List under subsection 5(6) of that Act.
Division 14 of Part 4 enacts the Pay Equity Act to establish a proactive process for the achievement of pay equity by the redressing of the systemic gender-based discrimination experienced by employees who occupy positions in predominantly female job classes. The new Act requires federal public and private sector employers that have 10 or more employees to establish and maintain a pay equity plan within set time frames so as to identify and correct differences in compensation between predominantly female and predominantly male job classes for which the work performed is of equal value. The new Act provides for the powers, duties and functions of a Pay Equity Commissioner, which include facilitating the resolution of disputes, conducting compliance audits and investigating disputes, objections and complaints, as well as making orders and imposing administrative monetary penalties for violations of that Act. The new Act also requires the Pay Equity Commissioner to report annually to Parliament on the administration and enforcement of the new Act.
Division 14 also amends the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act to provide for the application of the Pay Equity Act to parliamentary employers with certain adaptations and without limiting the powers, privileges and immunities of the Senate, the House of Commons and the members of those Houses.
It also makes the Minister of Labour responsible for the administration of the Federal Contractors Program for Pay Equity.
Finally, it makes related and consequential amendments to certain Acts and repeals the section of the Budget Implementation Act, 2009 that enacts the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act.
Subdivision A of Division 15 of Part 4 amends the Canada Labour Code to, among other things,
(a) provide five days of paid leave for victims of family violence, a personal leave of five days with three paid days, an unpaid leave for court or jury duty and a fourth week of annual vacation with pay for employees who have completed at least 10 consecutive years of employment;
(b) eliminate minimum length of service requirements for leaves and general holiday pay and reduce the length of service requirement for three weeks of vacation with pay;
(c) prohibit differences in rate of wages based on the employment status of employees;
(d) address continuity of employment issues when a work, undertaking or business becomes federally regulated or in cases of contract retendering; and
(e) update group and individual termination provisions by increasing the minimum notice of termination.
Subdivision B of Division 15 of Part 4 amends the Canada Labour Code to allow the Minister of Labour to designate a Head of Compliance and Enforcement who will exercise most of the powers and perform most of the duties and functions that are related to the administration and enforcement of Parts II, III and IV of the Code.
Division 16 of Part 4 amends the Wage Earner Protection Program Act to, among other things, increase the maximum amount that may be paid to an individual under the Act, expand the definition of eligible wages, expand the conditions under which a payment may be made under the Act and create additional requirements related to Her Majesty in right of Canada’s right of subrogation in respect of payments made under the Act.
Division 17 of Part 4 amends the Bretton Woods and Related Agreements Act, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Agreement Act and the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act to harmonize the periods within which the reports under those Acts must be laid before Parliament in order to better communicate Canada’s international development efforts. It also repeals the definition of “official development assistance” in the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act and confers the power to define this expression by regulation.
Division 17 also enacts the International Financial Assistance Act, which provides the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister for International Development with powers, duties and functions to support the delivery of a sovereign loans program, an international assistance innovation program and a federal international assistance program that promotes the mitigation of or adaptation to climate change through repayable contributions.
Division 18 of Part 4 enacts the Department for Women and Gender Equality Act which, among other things, establishes the Department for Women and Gender Equality to assist the Minister responsible for that department in exercising or performing the Minister’s powers, duties and functions that extend to and include all matters relating to women and gender equality, including the advancement of equality in respect of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression and the promotion of a greater understanding of the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors. It also contains transitional provisions. Finally, Division 18 makes consequential amendments to other Acts.
Division 19 of Part 4 enacts the Addition of Lands to Reserves and Reserve Creation Act which authorizes a Minister, designated by the Governor in Council, to set apart lands as reserves for the use and benefit of First Nations. The Division also repeals Part 2 of the Manitoba Claim Settlements Implementation Act and the Claim Settlements (Alberta and Saskatchewan) Implementation Act.
Division 20 of Part 4 amends section 715.‍42 of the Criminal Code to require the publication of any decision not to publish a remediation agreement or order related to that agreement and of any decision related to the review of such a decision, to specify that the court may make the first decision subject to a condition, including one related to the duration of non-publication, and to allow anyone to request a review of that decision.
Division 21 of Part 4 enacts the Poverty Reduction Act, which sets out two targets for poverty reduction in Canada.
Division 22 of Part 4 amends the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 to, among other things,
(a) authorize the Governor in Council to make regulations respecting the protection of the marine environment from the impacts of navigation and shipping activities;
(b) authorize the Minister of Transport to
(i) make an interim order to mitigate risks to marine safety or to the marine environment, and
(ii) exempt any person or vessel from the application of any provision of that Act or the regulations if doing so would allow the undertaking of research and development that may enhance marine safety or environmental protection;
(c) increase the maximum amount of an administrative penalty that the Governor in Council may fix by regulation;
(d) authorize the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, pollution response officers and accompanying persons to enter private property in the case of a discharge of oil from a vessel or oil handling facility; and
(e) double the administration monetary penalties for certain violations.
Division 23 of Part 4 amends the Marine Liability Act to modernize the Ship-source Oil Pollution Fund, including, among other things,
(a) removing the Fund’s per-occurrence limit of liability;
(b) in the event that the Fund is depleted, authorizing the temporary transfer to the Fund of funds from the Consolidated Revenue Fund;
(c) modernizing the Fund’s levy so that the Fund is replenished by receivers and exporters of oil;
(d) ensuring that the Fund’s liability for claims for economic losses caused by oil pollution aligns with international conventions;
(e) providing that the Fund is liable for the costs and expenses incurred by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans or any other person in respect of preventive measures when the occurrence for which those costs and expenses were incurred has not yet created a grave and imminent threat of causing oil pollution damage;
(f) authorizing the provision of up-front emergency funding out of the Fund to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans for significant oil pollution incidents;
(g) creating an expedited, simplified process for small claims to the Fund; and
(h) providing for administrative monetary penalties for contraventions of specified or designated provisions under that Act.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We'll have to leave it there.

Before we go to the five-minute rounds, starting with Mr. Poilievre, members have a budget before them, which is to do a study on Bill C-86, a second act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 27, 2018 and other measures.

The amount of money requested, basically for witnesses to attend the hearings that we've already pretty near completed, is $30,100.

Do I have a motion to that effect?

Mr. Julian.

[Professor Erin Hannah, Associate Professor and Chair, King's University College at the University of Western Ontario, As an Individual]

Thank you very much to the committee for inviting me to address you today.

I am an associate professor and chair of the department of political science at King's University College at the University of Western Ontario.

My research centres on international political economy, trade, development and global governance. Recently I have been doing a lot of work on the global gender and trade agenda. I have two collaborative projects with researchers from the U.K., through which we're exploring initiatives that are aimed at achieving gender equality and women's economic empowerment. We're trying to identify best practices and develop policy recommendations on how international organizations in countries like Canada can best pursue gender-sensitive and socially progressive policies.

In this vein I'd like to focus my comments today to the committee on the gender dimensions of Bill C-86, and particularly as they're relevant to international trade.

I'll make four arguments to which I'll return one at a time.

First, Canada is a leader on the gender and trade agenda and many elements of the bill—the gender-based accounting, the pay equity act, and the establishment of a department for women and gender equality—are reflective of Canada's progressive and gender-sensitive approach to trade.

Second, at the same time I'd like to strike both a congratulatory tone and also a cautionary tone with respect to the bill. While these elements can be characterized as auspicious I think we're at risk of over-promising and under-delivering on the trade and gender agenda specifically.

Third, a pay equity act is meaningless for many if trade liberalization is pushing women into increasingly low paid and precarious work.

Fourth, from a budgetary perspective, using trade as a lever for gender equality and women's economic empowerment will require more ambitious commitments on capacity-building and knowledge transfer both in Canada and abroad.

Canada's gender-sensitive trade policy is aimed at supporting women's economic empowerment, it's aimed at closing gaps in welfare distribution, and it's aimed at minimizing the adverse impact of trade liberalization on vulnerable women.

There are multiple such initiatives under way that we can discuss in the question period, but it's fair to say that Canada is at the very forefront of this agenda. In the February budget, as you well know, Canada committed to subjecting its free trade agreements to gender-based analysis plus, or GBA+, an assessment that takes into account gender and other intersectional identity characteristics.

This is very important because, as we know, the impacts of trade liberalization are gendered, especially in terms of employment and wages, but also in terms of job segregation and working conditions, in terms of consumption, and on the provisioning of public services. This also has to include a consideration of how these things have the potential to increase unpaid labour in the household.

Although we know this about the gendered nature of trade liberalization, it's only recently been acknowledged that we need to adopt an evidence-based approach to generating sex-disaggregated data and reliable methodological tools for measuring the gender impact of existing and proposed trade deals.

I'll say again that I think the risks of over-promising and under-delivering on this agenda are quite real.

We're truly at the cusp of establishing best practice in the field. But conducting rigorous GBA+ analysis is best described as ad hoc and aspirational at this time. It's never been applied to a free trade agreement before. That means that this is a really good opportunity for us, and while Canada is using GBA+ to conduct an ex ante assessment of its FTA with Mercosur, most experts, including the chief economist of Canada, acknowledge that we lack reliable and sufficiently granular data to fully assess the impact of proposed trade deals.

This means that in the absence of a well-established methodology in sex-disaggregated data, we're relying on anecdotal and voluntary reporting, mainly from businesses, but also from academics and non-governmental organizations, including women's rights organizations.

The government's commitments to fund evidence-based policy on gender equality are absolutely crucial, so this is the celebratory tone. That $6.7 million over five years to StatsCan to fund a centre for diversity inclusion statistics is absolutely essential. That $5 million per year to the department of women and gender equality is absolutely crucial. And $1.5 million over five years to fund coordination among the departments of Finance, women and gender equality, and StatsCan is essential.

The priority of the department of women and gender equality and its new minister needs to be better coordination between all of these agencies.

And further, if we're to make good on our claims about intersectionality in GBA+, then we need data on the impacts of trade agreements on other vulnerable groups in Canada, including indigenous populations.

It's also notable that we've only committed to conducting GBA+ on new trade agreements. This tells us nothing about the gendered impacts of the many trade agreements to which we already belong, many of which are named in this bill.

The pay equity act and the establishment of a department for women and gender equality are among the most exciting, progressive and important dimensions of the bill, and considered in tandem with the gender budgeting act, they have the potential to greatly improve the lives of many women. However, there's a lot at stake if we fail to get the GBA+ right in the field of trade, and this has direct implications for the pay equity act.

I said before that pay equity will be meaningless if, by the same token, we're concluding trade deals that push women into jobs that are precarious and low pay and/or shift the burden of care work more squarely onto their shoulders. Similarly, Canada's approach to negotiating investor protection in deals like CPTPP and CETA, for example, may be considered socially regressive because of the dangers associated with regulatory chill. We need to ensure that investor protections do not curtail government's duties to protect women's rights or work at cross-purposes with other elements of our gender equality agenda.

We could take a minimalist approach. We could take a “do no harm" approach. A minimalist approach is to conduct good GBA+ to simply ensure that new trade agreements do no harm, that they do not increase gender-based or other forms of inequality. This would mean conducting ex ante GBA+ using sex-disaggregated data along four dimensions in terms of employment and wages, consumption, access to public services and effects on entrepreneurship.

It's worth noting that most gender-based assessment of free trade agreements focus only on the first category—employment and wages. I think Canada can do a lot better, and focus on the impacts on those other three dimensions as well.

A maximalist approach would have us using trade as a lever for gender equality. This a circumstance where we could conduct both ex ante and ex post assessments of free trade agreements along those four dimensions. We would look at how proposed free trade agreements would impact women and other vulnerable groups, and then we would take stock of how existing free trade agreements have been affecting women and other vulnerable groups.

It would involve introducing measures to mitigate the adverse gendered impact of trade liberalization. This is where the buck stops in the bill. We've committed to conducting assessments of the impacts of free trade agreements, but we're saying nothing about mitigating the adverse effects of trade liberalization on women and other vulnerable communities.

We need a proactive approach, an approach that would have us working with our trade partners, and finding ways to use trade in a meaningful way as a lever for gender equality and creating new opportunities, not only for women entrepreneurs but for other women who are engaged in the Canadian economy.

From a budgetary perspective, Canada would be working at home and abroad to engage in capacity-building and knowledge transfer to reduce the barriers to women's economic empowerment and to reduce their precarity.

To conclude, I would say that we're saying all of the right words, and these words are reflected in Bill C-86. We have promised to submit federal budget items to gender and diversity impact assessment. Given that trade is a social justice issue and that trade policies affect women and other vulnerable groups differently and profoundly, this is a welcome move.

If we are to deliver on these words, however, then we have to have reliable trade-related, sex-disaggregated data. We need to take concrete measures minimizing the adverse impacts of trade on women and other vulnerable groups, and we need to identify and fund pathways for using trade as a lever, both for sustainability and gender equality.

I think that successfully delivering on this agenda could really improve the lived experiences of women in Canada and abroad.

[Phil Benson, Lobbyist, Teamsters Canada]

Good morning. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you on Bill C-86.

My name is Phil Benson, lobbyist, Teamsters Canada. With me is Stéphane Lacoste, general counsel, Teamsters Canada.

Teamsters Canada is the largest private sector union representing workers in air, rail, road, bus, couriers and more, in the federal jurisdiction.

I will be briefly addressing the proposed amendments to part III of the Canada Labour Code and Mr. Lacoste will discuss the pay equity act.

Teamsters Canada supports the Canadian Labour Congress presentation and our written submission will follow. The proposed amendments to the Canada Labour Code were a long time coming and we congratulate the government on moving forward. It is a step in the right direction.

The most important change for Teamsters Canada is dealing with contract flipping. The new section 189 will reduce the ability of companies presenting low bids on federal contracts, based on reducing workers' benefits and entitlements under the code, rather than bringing their managerial expertise to improve efficiencies. The proposed changes will not fully address the problems faced by unionized workers at airports, where contract flipping affects bargaining rights, compensation and terms and conditions of employment. Teamsters Canada was very pleased when Minister Hajdu announced the government will move forward with regulations, under part I of the code, to address this problem. Teamsters Canada will participate in all consultations on the regulations and we encourage the government to move quickly in bringing them forward.

Misclassification of employees by employers removes workers from the protection of the code and also creates an uneven playing field for companies. The prohibition and reverse onus on employers provided by proposed section 167.1 will enhance existing legislation jurisprudence. This is an issue especially important in trucking and Teamsters Canada welcomes the change.

Proposed section 173.01 provides some scheduling protection for non-union workers. It is not applicable to unionized workers and even if it were, it would not be applicable to unionized workers falling under Transport Canada power to regulate hours of service in air, rail and road. Fatigue is both a public and a health and safety issue for workers. The Transportation Safety Board placed fatigue on the transportation watch-list.

Teamsters Canada demands that all workers in federal jurisdiction enjoy the full protection of the Canada Labour Code and that the Department of Labour fulfill its mandate to protect transportation workers. Transportation workers work long hours and a major irritant is when a workday is extended, forcing them to work instead of attending family responsibilities, which is a common practice for couriers. Notwithstanding the limitations of proposed section 174.1, the right to refuse overtime to carry out family responsibility is progressive and shows the government understands the pressures placed on workers. Further evidence of this is proposed section 181.1, on page 452 of the bill, dealing with breaks for medical reasons and nursing.

[Frank Allen, Executive Director, FAIR Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good morning to the members of the committee. FAIR Canada is a national charitable organization dedicated to putting financial consumers first. As a voice for financial consumers, FAIR Canada is committed to advocating for stronger consumer protections and advancing investors' and financial consumers' rights.

We are here today to speak briefly to some of the provisions in division 10 of Bill C-86, the proposed financial consumer protection framework.

As the members of this committee are well aware, banks hold a trusted position among Canadians because of the role they play in the savings, mortgages, loans and investments of all Canadians. Our banks are in a unique position to have a significant impact on the long-term financial security of most Canadians.

Today, financial products are complex, whether they're mortgages, investments or even deposits, such as market-linked guaranteed investment certificates. This means that people go to the bank, not just to conduct transactions, but with the expectation that they will be provided with advice that helps them meet their financial goals and the banks market themselves and their services in this manner.

Trust in banks is vital. It is important.

As you're aware, in 2017 the CBC Go Public series on bank employees and the FCAC's domestic bank sales practices report, which was published earlier this spring, found numerous risks of “mis-selling” by banks of products and services to customers.

The FCAC report showed that the retail banking culture is predominantly focused on selling products and services and that consumers' interests were made secondary to those of the bank and their employees and contractors. The report demonstrated the need for strengthened consumer protection for Canadians and their bank dealings.

In our June 9, 2017, letter to this committee, FAIR Canada urged the adoption of a best interest standard for those engaged in providing financial advice to banking clients.

Bill C-86, at section 627.06, introduces a requirement that banks establish and implement policies and procedures to ensure that products and services are “appropriate for the person having regard to their circumstances, including their financial needs”.

Among our concerns about this standard is that strict adherence to the proposed consumer protection provision set out in Bill C-86, on consent, no undue pressure, coercion and disclosure, will be seen as being sufficient to meet Bill C-86's appropriate requirement, while the product or service being sold may still not be in the consumer's best interest, given its cost, net return or other factors.

A product or service may be appropriate, but it may still be suboptimal for the bank's customer. We are concerned that this appropriate standard will not advance consumer protection, beyond that found by the CBC Go Public series and the FCAC report.

As you may be aware, for more than six years, the security sector has been engaged in trying to strengthen the standard owed to clients beyond that of suitability, given that the suitability standard has not worked in the interests of consumers and clients of securities dealers.

We do not want to spend several years determining what is appropriate for clients of banks, when a clear standard of best interests could be introduced and work for the benefit of bank consumers.

A second area of acute concern to FAIR Canada is the existing consumer dispute resolution system for banking complaints.

Simply put, the consumer dispute resolution system is flawed, both the banks' internal dispute complaint handling systems and the external mechanisms. The FCAC report earlier this year found that:

Weaknesses in policies, procedures and systems for handling complaints limit the ability of banks to adequately monitor, identify and report complaints to management, boards and FCAC.

Externally, as you're aware, the Bank Act's regulatory oversight of external complaint bodies permits multiple external complaint bodies and results in one-sided competition. The banks are able to choose their referee of choice in order to handle customer complaints outside of the bank.

In light of the above, the Bill C-86 updating of the consumer-related provisions in the Bank Act is a critical first step in strengthening consumer protection for Canadians in dealing with their banks. We are optimistic that the government will continue to look at this area in light of the evidence produced by the CBC Go Public series and the content of the FCAC domestic retail sales practices report and that further reforms will be considered in the future.

We do want to acknowledge a number of provisions in the existing—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Jeneroux has asked that we go in public, rather than in camera, for further discussion on Bill C-86. It's a recorded vote.

(Motion negatived: nays 5; yeas 4)

Thank you, Mr. Jeneroux.

Again, to our folks from British Columbia, thanks for being up so early this morning, and have a wonderful day.

We will suspend for a few moments for our witnesses to leave.

[Proceedings continue in camera]

[Adam Brown, Chair, Canadian Alliance of Student Associations]

Good morning, Mr. Chair, honourable committee members and fellow witnesses.

I would like to begin by acknowledging that we have the privilege today of gathering on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin and Anishinaabe people.

My name is Adam Brown. I am the chair of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, or CASA. I am also the vice-president external of the University of Alberta Students' Union, and a fourth-year student completing a business degree majoring in business economics and law.

CASA is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that represents roughly 350,000 students at colleges, universities and polytechnics across the country. Through a formal partnership with the Union étudiante du Québec, we are a trusted national student voice. We advocate for a post-secondary system that is accessible, affordable, innovative and of the highest quality.

Today I will be speaking to two important aspects of this bill.

The first relates to the Copyright Act and its impact on the quality of education here in Canada. The second relates to education as a missing component of the government's poverty reduction strategy.

These are two key elements that will significantly impact the quality and accessibility of student post-secondary experiences.

Bill C-86, part 4, amends part of the Copyright Act relating to the Copyright Board by improving the timelines and clarity of its proceedings and decision-making process. Students are pleased to see this as CASA highlighted it as an issue in its Copyright Act review submission to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology earlier this year.

In fact, students are directly impacted by the decisions of the Copyright Board, specifically when it comes to fees associated with copyrighted materials. Post-secondary institutions will either pass the costs of copyrighted works onto students through increasing ancillary fees, or they will pay out of their operating budgets, which will affect the quality of the education being given.

Despite the fact that the Copyright Board's decisions directly impact the accessibility and affordability of education, students are often left in the dark about the fees that are levied on them.

Tuition is only one piece of post-secondary cost that students are expected to cover, and students will continue to struggle with unpredictable education costs if these high ancillary fees, such as those coming from copyright costs or the high costs of textbooks, remain.

While CASA is pleased to see reforms to the Copyright Board, the question is still up in the air as to whether the existing statutory protection of education as a component of fair dealing will remain following the Copyright Act review.

Fair dealing for the purposes of education specifically helps Canada offer an accessible and high-quality post-secondary education system by not subjecting information and knowledge to unreasonable restrictions.

The way it accomplishes this is twofold. First, fair dealing for education purposes ensures that students can access a variety of quality learning materials with varying perspectives throughout their studies.

For example, I've taken a few classes where professors use a variety of text, audio and visual materials from different sources that do enhance the quality from diverse perspectives.

Second, fair dealing for educational purposes keeps in mind the financial realities of students. As you're likely aware, students already face significant costs to their education. The average undergraduate student with loans in Canada graduates with approximately $27,000 in student debt. Without fair dealing, students would lose because they would face overly burdensome processes and fees to access integral education materials. Faculty would lose as they're not able to have the same freedom to provide their students with affordable and diverse learning materials. Industries would lose because the incoming talent would lack exposure to a diversity of ideas throughout their learning. Finally, Canadian post-secondary institutions would lose to their foreign competitors who are making larger strides with respect to providing their students with affordable and accessible education materials.

Content creators are important. As a matter of fact, many of us students will go on to become those content creators. However, unnecessarily restricting students' access to learning materials is not a good way to protect those materials. CASA welcomes Copyright Board reforms but calls upon all members of Parliament to do what they can to protect education as a component of fair dealing in the Copyright Act.

To move to my second point, we're pleased to see the inclusion of the poverty reduction act in Bill C-86. CASA believes that post-secondary education is an important tool for reducing poverty in Canada.

Earlier this year, we also submitted recommendations to the government's poverty reduction consultation and in this submission, students suggested ways to increase the usage of the Canada learning bond to help families in need save for their children's education. The government currently supports low-income families by providing Canada learning bonds that contribute up to $2,000 to a child's registered education savings plan. While the bond provides much-needed support to aspiring students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, sadly, only 31% of eligible families access the benefit.

In Ontario, RESP registrations are now linked with online birth registration to ease the process of accessing this Canada learning bond. This is a step in the right direction to making the bond more accessible to families.

CASA strongly encourages the Government of Canada to begin working with the provinces to increase the uptake of the Canada learning bond as well as the number of young Canadians able to access post-secondary education in the future.

Thank you for inviting us to appear before the committee to discuss the concerns of post-secondary students regarding copyright and Canada's poverty reduction strategy, which are addressed in Bill C-86.

Thank you.

[Derrick Hynes, President and Chief Executive Officer, FETCO Inc.]

Thank you, Chair.

Good morning, committee members. It's always a thrill for me to be here and appear in front of any committee. I studied politics many years ago and am a non-partisan political junkie. I spend way too much time watching CNN and related media.

I am the president and CEO of FETCO. FETCO stands for Federally Regulated Employers - Transportation and Communications. We are all federally related firms in the transportation and communications sectors. We've existed as an organization for over 30 years. We're generally large employers in the federal sector encompassing over 500,000 employees. FETCO members are household names to many of you: Air Canada, Bell, CN, CP, FedEx, UPS, WestJet and Telus, to name just a few.

Today, in my limited time with you, I'm going to spend a couple of minutes on two key issues in this bill: division 14, on the pay equity bill, and division 15, on the Canada Labour Code. I'm not going to comment clause by clause on provisions within the bill. Time today doesn't permit me to do that, nor did the time in terms of reviewing the bill allow me to do that.

I want to talk about four key messages in terms of our messaging to you today. The first is about, and I think this has been discussed at your committee, the use of omnibus budget bills. Here we are going to be equal opportunity criticizers. This is an issue on which we were critical of the previous government, and we will raise it again today.

This bill is nearly 900 pages long, and it includes enormous diversity. To review it in one week and provide any sort of meaningful feedback to you is difficult, so we're looking specifically at two critical issues that affect our members. Both have been the result of consultation efforts the government has undertaken, but at this point, I'd say that this feels a little bit rushed. We've gotten to this point where legislation has been introduced, and we are very quickly going to go through this bill, and let's be real, it's a budget bill, so it's likely to pass with only limited amendment.

The other thing, of course, as I think has been pointed out, is that the modern labour standards piece in this bill related to part III was not specifically referenced in budget 2018, so it is likely inappropriate in this space.

It would have been our preference if both of these bills were stand-alone pieces of legislation. The government has committed a lot of energy to pay equity and to part lll of the code. We've been engaged quite extensively with our counterparts in the labour movement, and it certainly would have been our preference to see these introduced as separate pieces of legislation.

My second point is really about business costs. Our concern with this bill is that there are some indications that due consideration is not being given to business costs. I raise this as a broader issue to the government as a whole.

We've seen a lot of major workplace-related changes over the past three years. I'll give you just some examples, for which there are major cost implications for the employer community: paid personal leave, family responsibility leave, expanded vacation leave, caregiver leave, indigenous practices leave, leave for victims of domestic violence, medical leave, changes to the EI program, accessibility legislation, flexible work arrangements, pay equity, termination compensation, and the elimination of wait periods for certain compensatory benefits. We're now starting to talk about a new statutory holiday. All of these have major cost implications.

On an individual basis, I think it's quite rational to look at them and logically conclude that they are reasonable, but there's a cumulative effect from a number of these changes that is having a real, major effect on the business community. As we're having a national dialogue on issues like business investment, workplace productivity and economic competitiveness, it's tough when we're simultaneously driving up the cost of doing business. To us that seems like a contradiction, and we think it is reasonable that business costs would be factored into any of these discussions.

Specifically, on the bill in front of us today, I have some comments on both the pay equity bill and the changes to the Canada Labour Code. On the pay equity provisions, I want to be very clear, and I hope there is no misunderstanding between us today. Our organization, FETCO, is very supportive of the concept of pay equity, equal pay for work of equal value. We believe that closing the wage gap is of critical importance. It is the right thing to do. It makes business sense.

The concern we've been raising for the two years we've been having this discussion, specific to this bill, is about the methodology. I recognize that the ship has likely sailed, since it is now contained in the bill, but we have been concerned that a proactive approach to pay equity may not be the best approach to root out wage discrimination where it does exist.

The government has clearly committed to it, and our concern, which we have raised repeatedly, is that this may be a costly and potentially overly bureaucratic solution that many not close the wage gap.

I reflect back to the Special Committee on Pay Equity. I presented on behalf of employers at that table. Some representatives from Statistics Canada presented shortly before me, and they indicated some data that I thought was particularly useful. They indicated that we have a wage gap. When they looked at the sectors of Ontario, Quebec and the federal sector, they indicated there is a wage gap in Canada, and I think we all agree that's a problem. They also indicated that the wage gap is narrowing. That's a good thing, but it's not narrowing at a fast enough rate. What is most interesting about the data that StatsCan presented was that the gap in wage rates in the Ontario, the Quebec and the federal models was essentially narrowing at the same rate.

We recognize the current approach we use, the complaints-based model, is not working as effectively as it could be. The question we raised is why we would throw it all out and replace it with something that isn't proving to be any more effective than the current model that we're using. I'm happy to talk specifics about the bill, if you have questions later.

The last thing I'll talk about is the changes to part III of the Canada Labour Code. The fundamental issue that we've had throughout this process, as it relates to part III of the code and the minimum labour standards that exist therein, is that we think the government has largely applied a provincial lens to the federal sector, and they're really not the same. The point we've made is that in some cases we're solving a problem that actually doesn't exist. The government speaks a lot about precarious and vulnerable workers. While we do recognize that issue does exist in the country, it's largely an issue that exists within provincially regulated sectors. In fact, the government's own data indicates this. The government's own data, in its discussion paper leading up to these changes to part III of the code, indicates that the vast majority of jobs in the federal sector are permanent, full-time unionized jobs with full pensions and benefits, and many exist in the context of a mature collective bargaining system.

Bill C-86 introduced a series of changes to the code that are going to raise the standards. The challenge this presents to us, as large employers, is that it will create a couple of key challenges. We think it's going to create conflicts in collective agreements where similar provisions already exist, and what might happen when that conflict emerges; and second, we are worried about the inflationary pressure that elevating labour standards over here for what is a small group of employees may have over here for the bulk of the federal sector.

I'll leave it at that, and I'm happy to take your questions. Thanks you for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Could the committee come to order? The finance committee is continuing its study of Bill C-86, a second act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 27, 2018, and other measures.

For members' information, the clerk will pass out a budget that relates to this study and paying the expenses of some witnesses who had to come some distance. People can look it over before we have a discussion on it later in the meeting.

I welcome the witnesses here. First up as a witness is Mr. Hynes, president and chief executive officer of FETCO Inc.

Go ahead, Mr. Hynes.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, everybody, for being here.

My understanding, based on a question I asked at our last session, is that Bill C-86 is relatively narrowly targeted at certain financial provisions in some of the acts that are all bundled up in here. In fact, through other committee processes, the various acts we're talking about really did get a fair bit of scrutiny. We had witnesses both here and at the fisheries committee. That gave a lot of people a lot of time to give input, particularly with respect to some of the discretionary authorities that would flow out of this legislation.

Generally speaking, the government has gone forward on the idea that we can balance the economy and the environment. We can't shut down our trade, but at the same time, we can't allow trade to overrun species at risk. It isn't necessarily a delicate balance that we're talking about; it's about what we can do to promote both in going forward and prospering.

On the fisheries side, we quite often talk about the application of what we call the “precautionary principle”, which means that there are times when we don't have all the science, but we know something is wrong. We have to do something and we have to do it quickly. Based on the commentary I've heard, the misgivings or concerns people have aren't necessarily over what we're trying to accomplish; it's the “how” part.

We've seen examples where some of the orders coming down have been far too broad or far too blunt an instrument, and could have been refined either before they were implemented, or certainly afterwards. I think we need an ongoing process to refine them. We may come in with a very broad order on an interim basis, but the door has to be open to refine it so that we're not causing undue damage to either side of this equation.

The other piece that comes up very often at the fisheries committee is our use and understanding of local knowledge. In the marine industry, local knowledge, particularly on the west coast, would include the properties of an individual ship and the speed at which it is going to emit the least amount of noise. Coming down with a heavy-handed order that says that all ships must go at a particular speed might, in fact, create more difficulties than it's trying to solve.

The other piece has to do with the local knowledge of the people who live there, particularly on the indigenous side.

Mr. Lowry, this is where I wanted to deal with you a little bit on the issue of the Nathan E. Stewart at Bella Bella. People from far away came in and were giving orders to the locals about how to deal with that tugboat that was on the rocks but had not breached. The locals believed firmly that they could have prevented the spill had they been allowed to act, but they were prevented from doing so. The local knowledge was ignored, and as a result, we ended up with a huge catastrophe that has a material impact on their lives.

Mr. Lowry, I know you're not necessarily responsible for the whole suite of things that happened here, but I would like your commentary on the application of local and indigenous knowledge to respond more effectively and efficiently to issues when they come up.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you.

Please tell us how Bill C-86 will help improve the work you do at a spill site.

[Matt Jeneroux]

In your remarks, you also expressed concern with some of the proposed amendments to the Canada Shipping Act.

Do those concerns lead you to call for amendments to Bill C-86 in these areas? Specifically, do you think the provision of interim orders might be amended to provide the parameters that you think are necessary?

[Margot Venton, Director, Nature Program, Ecojustice Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank the committee for inviting me to speak today regarding the amendments to the Canada Shipping Act and the Marine Liability Act proposed in Bill C-86. I'm a lawyer with Ecojustice Canada.

Ecojustice is Canada's largest environmental law organization, supported by approximately 20,000 individual donors throughout the country. With offices on both the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts, Ecojustice is dedicated to ensuring legal protection of Canada's oceans. Through my practice, I largely focus on marine conservation issues. I'll make my short submission on the proposed changes to the Shipping Act.

The proposed amendments reflect our expanding understanding of the environmental impact associated with shipping, including ship-source pollution, physical disturbance and noise pollution.

Significant expansion of already busy port facilities on the west coast is proposed or already under way. Our Shipping Act must be able to respond to increasing threats that will accompany this expansion. Current gaps in the regulatory system must be filled before further expansion occurs.

The Salish Sea, for example, is a nationally significant marine ecosystem, home to a diversity of plant, fish and marine mammal species relied on traditionally by indigenous peoples and more recently by settler communities, and it is also home to Canada's busiest port. The Salish Sea has been degraded and many marine species in the Salish Sea are struggling, including the endangered southern resident killer whale whose population has declined over the summer to just 74 animals. Pollution and disturbance from marine vessels, along with reduced prey availability, are identified as key causes of decline and as barriers to recovery for these whales. Shipping also affects beluga whales in the St. Lawrence and the North Atlantic right whale on the Atlantic coast, each in a slightly different way.

To survive, killer whales need an acoustic environment that allows them to hear the subtle clicks of echolocation and the distinct calls of family members, and ship noise interferes with both of these things. Despite knowing for nearly 20 years that physical and acoustic disturbance from vessels threaten killer whales, little action has been taken to address the threat. This is in part because the Shipping Act does not explicitly allow for the regulation of ocean noise, nor does it clearly enable Transport Canada or DFO to order the kinds of mitigation required to address ocean noise such as speed reductions, route changes and most importantly, noise caps, vessel design and retrofitting. These were the kinds of tools only used to address marine safety issues and not protection of the marine environment. As a result of the legislative gap, limited action has been taken to address physical and acoustic disturbance from vessels and that limited action has been through voluntary initiatives. Unfortunately, this voluntary approach has failed to limit the whales' decline.

Clear and enforced rules work to regulate conduct. As a result of mandatory, enforced vessel slowdowns for marine safety purposes put in place under the Shipping Act on the Atlantic coast to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, no whales were killed this year by vessel strikes, and we need similarly strong, legally binding rules to protect southern residents and other marine features from ships and ship noise.

The proposed amendments to the Shipping Act fill a gap, providing clear rule-making power for protection of the marine environment and additionally propose interim order provisions that provide a useful tool that allows for nimble response to new and emerging issues, such as shipping noise and other emerging issues and emergencies. It can take years to develop regulation; an interim order allows for quick, targeted action to address a problem while creating space for the development of a more comprehensive and permanent regulation.

Our recommendation would be to extend the period of the interim order to reflect what we understand to be a realistic time to develop regulation, which would be closer to two or three years from the existing one year. Experience shows that progress was made in pollution reduction for both airplane noise and tailpipe emissions for vehicles following the imposition of regulation, and we need to take this same successful approach with the environmental impacts of shipping.

Thank you.

[Bruce Burrows, President, Chamber of Marine Commerce]

Sure, I'd be pleased to.

Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, Madam Chair, clerk and members of this committee for the invitation to speak today.

I'm pleased to see so many of you a short while after our Marine Day on the Hill event on the 16th, during which I hope many of you learned more about the marine mode and what my members are doing for Canada.

I had not anticipated a meeting under today's circumstances. For those who may not know, I am Bruce Burrows, president of the Chamber of Marine Commerce or the CMC. I am joined today by Sarah Douglas, the CMC's senior director of government and stakeholder relations.

Further to my reference to the circumstances behind and purpose of today's discussion, I understand that divisions 22 and 23 of Bill C-86, before you today, seek to amend the Canada Shipping Act and the Marine Liability Act. However, it wasn't until mid-August that Transport Canada was in position to begin a more substantive consultation on these two issues, which are part of the oceans protection plan, and it was a broad discussion at that.

With that consultation closing on October 26, CMC provided specific constructive feedback on improving the CSA and MLA, and I hope you are able to read our submission in detail. You can then understand how concerned we are, in the interest of effective consultation, about there being such a rapid turnaround between the end of the consultation period and the sudden tabling of legislation.

I preface my next point by saying that the CMC has a good relationship with Transport Canada, but then note that the government in its wisdom more broadly has elected to veil important pieces of transport legislation under the cover of an omnibus bill. There's now an accelerated time frame under which these legislative proposals are proceeding. This is inappropriate in our view.

Before turning to my colleague, I'd like to make clear that the marine mode in Canada is the safest and most environmentally friendly means of transportation. Every year more than 230 million metric tonnes of cargo is transported through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River waterway. Moving this cargo safely is the top priority for the marine transportation industry, which works to maximize protection of people, property and the environment. Comprehensive regulatory oversight, investments in advanced navigation technology and sound safety practices have produced significant safety achievements, and more investments are being made by industry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We won't be doing clause-by-clause. That will be done at the finance committee when they do clause-by-clause on the issue.

Mr. Jeneroux has asked that we make public our 9 to 9:45 a.m. discussion on Bill C-86.

All those in favour? Opposed?

[The Chair (Hon. Judy A. Sgro (Humber River—Black Creek, Lib.)), Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I call to order this meeting of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are studying the subject matter of clauses 688 to 747, divisions 22 and 23, of Bill C-86.

I want to thank our witnesses for being here so early in the morning.

To our folks in British Columbia especially, we recognize that it's five o'clock in the morning. We really appreciate the fact you're up and are going to share some thoughts with us.

Before we go to our witnesses, Mr. Jeneroux has a point he wanted to raise.