Bill C-300

An Act to amend the Department of Public Works and Government Services Act, the Defence Production Act and the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act (Canadian products and services)

This enactment amends the Department of Public Works and Government Services Act and the Defence Production Act to provide that, in relation to the acquisition of products and services for use by government departments, preference must be given to Canadian products and services.
It also amends the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act to provide for a new transfer to the provinces for the purpose of giving preference to Canadian products and services.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

I've been working on and have introduced a private member's bill, Bill C-300, which is trying to change the procurement system to give greater weight within that bidding process to companies that manufacture within Canada and give them that one-up.

You spoke in your testimony about making that space for those Canadian companies and ensuring that this plays a role. Can you reflect on the relationship between that federal procurement and those dollars being spent within Canadian manufacturing, and how important that is? Can you speak more about that?

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Mueller, your organization produced a report entitled “Vision 2025”, which called specifically for a “buy in Canada” procurement policy. It's something I've been pushing. I have a private member's bill on that, Bill C-300, which looks to establish that made-in-Canada procurement policy. Of course, we want to ensure that we're using those federal dollars to create good, community-building, family-sustaining jobs in Canada.

Can you elaborate on that specific made-in-Canada approach you outlined in your policy document? I was hoping you would be willing to table that report with the committee here today as well.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

To conclude, I put forward private member's Bill C-300 to try to get at what we were discussing in terms of the money that is supposed to go into Canadian hands at source and which is finding its way into more of the foreign larger corporate hands.

We talk about the spin-off jobs in my city. In my constituency, there's a very large contractor, but it's the smaller spin-offs....

Is that considered in a lot of these projects within your analysis, and is it just more of the hardware, or were you looking as well at training and education in some of the companies that were doing that work?

Department of Public Works and Government Services Act

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-300, An Act to amend the Department of Public Works and Government Services Act, the Defence Production Act and the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act (Canadian products and services).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in this place today to introduce my bill, and I want to thank my colleague from Courtenay—Alberni for his support, for seconding this bill and for his work as the NDP critic for procurement.

My made-in-Canada bill, an act to amend the Department of Public Works and Government Services Act, the Defence Production Act and the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, which is quite the title, would create legislation to give Canadian-made goods and services preference for federal procurement contracts.

I also want to thank the former member of Parliament for London—Fanshawe for this bill. She brought forward a similar one, and she did so because she saw successive Conservative and Liberal governments making decisions on trade deals and government procurements that did not put Canadian workers first. Certainly, Londoners and workers in southwestern Ontario know how harmful those decisions can be, as we saw the hollowing out of manufacturing jobs in our region.

As the representative for London—Fanshawe, I have been so overwhelmed touring my riding to see the potential and future of manufacturing there. There are incredible companies coming up with innovative products in my riding, and I am always honoured to represent them, fight for Londoners and fight for Canadians, their prosperity and their jobs. I believe this bill would provide them protection and future success.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)