COVID-19 Pandemic Committee on April 28th, 2020

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the minister for her answer and I congratulate her on the quality of her French. I also want to assure you that, when she uses the English word jobs, all francophones understand what she is talking about.

I would now like to put a question about business owners to the Minister of Finance.

Some business owners do not pay themselves a salary, but receive dividends instead. The government had a bit of a problem at the beginning of its proposals to help business owners, and that problem has been corrected, but not entirely. Among other things, there is the issue of access to the $40,000 loan. Even this morning, I met a business owner who did not have access to that contribution because he was paying himself a salary in dividends.

What does the government say to a business owner who pays himself in dividends, but does not have access to the $40,000 loan contribution, as it is proposed for other types of business owners?

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The Honourable Minister has the floor.

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is indeed a different situation. In emergency benefits, dividends are included in the calculation for business owners who use dividends. Our approach concerning rent is more of an approach for small businesses who need it. There will be a number of measures to help people in various situations. [Technical difficulties] consider our approach regarding loans. We will have more information on this over the coming days.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Thornhill, Mr. Kent.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thornhill's world-famous Shouldice hospital, which performed almost 7,000 hernia operations last year, has followed the Ontario government's order to suspend elective surgery and has closed its doors during the COVID lockdown, but employees of this historic institution have become unintended casualties of the emergency CERB funds, caught in the ineligibility provisions for hospitals. Shouldice hospital is covering staff salaries for now but can't continue to do that for long.

Might the finance minister correct this unintended consequence of the emergency funding?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I want to say that we recognize that different institutions and businesses are facing different challenges. Our attempt has been to come up with measures that can most adequately capture a large number of Canadians. We think our measures are doing that. More than seven million people have taken advantage of the Canada emergency response benefit now, and we've seen a very significant application process for the emergency wage subsidy approach.

We recognize that there are many situations and many organizations we need to continue to consider. Our approach will be, on a continuing basis, to make sure we're protecting people, and that we try to find a way to give employers a bridge through this time, and of course deal with any specific problems we see that need to be dealt with. We've taken the approach that we will continue to make improvements where we see they're warranted.

I appreciate the question.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Chair, with regard to the government's still imprecise plans related to the reopening of the Canadian economy, how will the expansion of vitally important testing capacity be achieved and when might Health Canada approve truly effective antibody testing?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

With respect to vaccine development, therapeutics and countermeasures, we are engaging with different companies to look at made-in-Canada solutions.

We're also leveraging our world-class scientists—

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I can't hear the response.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I want to impress something upon all the members for the next session. You'll notice that I have a headset. Please order one. I mean this especially for people who are answering questions, because it's so much clearer. You'll notice that the microphone is close to my face, and it's much clearer. It's for everyone. Maybe you don't have one yet or maybe it's just not there, but please make sure that you do have it handy. It will make the audio clearer.

I'll ask the honourable minister to continue and maybe to speak a little closer to the screen.

Thank you.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if you can hear me right now—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

I can't hear anything. It's just silence.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Minister Bains, if you can put your settings to English at the bottom of Zoom, then maybe it will translate. That's what the issue was before.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Can you hear me now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Everyone can hear you now. Thank you.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

As I was saying, with respect to vaccine development and therapeutics and countermeasures, we are mobilizing Canadian scientists. We're recognizing that we need to look at ways to make sure that a lot of that development opportunity can take place here in Canada. Also, with the concept of open science, we're engaging with our international peers to look at solutions globally as well.

It's important to note that we're also focusing on building up clinical trial capacity and broad-based biomanufacturing production capabilities within Canada. These measures will enable us to make sure that we are at the forefront of engaging with other countries on vaccine development, therapeutics and other countermeasures, and also a made-in-Canada production capability in order to assist Canadians as we move forward and eventually, hopefully, find a vaccine.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

As we wait for the development of that vaccine, when does the government expect to achieve adequate supplies of personal protective equipment to support the provinces' efforts to reopen the economy?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

There are two components to it.

My colleague, Minister Anand, is working on the purchasing aspect of it. I'm focused on the made-in-Canada solution. We provide daily and weekly updates to Canadians on companies that are mobilizing on a regular basis. We had a call to action, and over 6,000 companies stepped up and said that they want to help with the mobilization efforts. We're very proud of the fact that we have a strong domestic manufacturing capability that enables us to do that.

In some of the initiatives that we've announced on ventilators, we were able to engage Thornhill Medical, CAE, Starfish Medical, Art McDonald's initiative and Ventilators for Canadians for over 30,000 ventilators, which should meet the expectations we have in Canada. With respect to face shields, we've engaged companies such as Ford, Mitchell Plastics and Honda to enable us to produce millions of face shields within Canada.

Gowns are another incredible success story. We not only mobilized companies in the apparel industry, such as Stanfield's, but we also found Canadian raw material and inputs, construction house wrap, that will enable us to build a made-in-Canada solution with raw materials from within Canada and deal with some of those international supply chain challenges that we've had.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

We will go to the honourable member for Lakeland, Mrs. Stubbs.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

More than a month ago, the finance minister said help for the oil and gas sector was coming in hours or days. Canadian companies have been forced to cut about $9 billion in planned spending since the beginning of March, while active rigs dropped from 214 to 24, and up to 50% of workers employed by drillers have been laid off and thousands more have lost their jobs.

On April 17, the government announced loans between $15 million and $60 million. The natural resources minister said that day that the most urgent priority for energy operators is “liquidity, liquidity, liquidity.”

Last Friday, April 24, the BDC said details on how companies can apply are weeks away.

On what exact date can energy producers and service companies apply?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to participate in this meeting, and thank you to everybody for putting it together.

We'll be working with the Department of Finance to make sure that—

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

A point of order, Mr. Chair. We cannot hear.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

We seem to have a point of order. The sound is giving us a hard time.

Now the honourable minister—

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Can you hear me now?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Yes, we can.