COVID-19 Pandemic Committee on May 21st, 2020

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages]

The tourism sector is of course deeply impacted, and that's why we have the rent support, the wage subsidy and also the CEBA account and the regional development agency funding.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

The minister is skating around the question here. The Prime Minister said there would be a program specifically announced for tourism and hospitality. That was over a month ago.

When will that program be announced? I don't want to hear about other programs that exist. I want to hear about the one that's supposed to be coming for tourism and hospitality specifically.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Well, there is a program directly for tourism operators, and my colleague knows about it because we had good conversations about it. It is to pay the rents, pay the employee salaries, and also to have access to liquidity. These are the measures that are there for the tourism sector.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Clearly, the answer to that question is that this program is not going to be coming. The Prime Minister was apparently misleading Canadians.

Let's ask about some other things that affect the tourism industry and its ability to reopen when the economy restarts.

When the government makes the decision, whenever that is, to reopen the international borders, tourism operators will certainly need some lead time to make things like marketing campaigns, staffing decisions and put in place safety protocols. When is the government going to set out some kind of criteria or parameters around how those decisions will be made about border reopening so there's some certainty for tourism operators and they can ramp up their businesses again?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

My colleague, the Minister of Public Safety, and I are in close contact and close co-operation. We understand that we need to make sure we respect the public health authorities' advice, while at the same time supporting the reopening of the economy. Certainly tourism has been hard hit, so that's why we have in place measures until the end of August through the wage subsidy.

However, if businesses are really falling through the cracks of the system, they can have access to the regional development agency funding, and of course we're looking at supporting destination marketing organizations as well.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

What businesses want, though, is to be able to ramp up their businesses and get back into business. To be able to do that, they need to have some sense of when this will happen. You can't just reopen the borders and expect visitors are going to flow across again tomorrow.

They need to know when this will happen, in terms of how the criteria are developed. Will the government be announcing what those criteria will look like so that businesses can have some certainty and some idea of when they will be able to welcome visitors again and prepare to make sure things are safe when they do so?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Mr. Chair, let me thank the member opposite for the question. It's a very important one for Canadians, and I want to start with this assurance to Canadians: The health and safety of Canadians is first and foremost for our government when it comes to reopening the borders. We need to be very careful about the epidemiological situation in Canada and outside our country. We're also working very closely with the premiers.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Again it sounds like we're not going to get any kind of an answer there, so maybe we can talk about the fact that for many tourism operators, the whole vitally important summer tourist season is in serious jeopardy for them. With international visitation likely to be down for some time to come as well, what will the government do to promote more winter tourism in Canada and more domestic tourism this year?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Thank you to my colleague for his important question.

I understand the anxiety of people in the tourism sector expressed by my colleague today because it is a sector that is hard hit. We did some very important investments in the past mandate to make sure we would be supporting winter tourism, but we want to do more, and that's exactly why we're spending through our regional development agencies, and we will continue to engage with the tourism sector as we're trying to reopen and—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

We'll go back to Mr. Richards for a question of 15 seconds or less, please.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

We're still not getting any answers on tourism, so let's try to get an answer on our important oil and gas industry.

Does the government agree with the leaders of the Bloc and the Green Party that oil is dead, thanks to their attempts to kill it?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Mr. Chair, our government understands the importance of the energy sector to the Canadian economy, and we are committed to supporting energy workers.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

What is the government doing to support the industry if it—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Mr. Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Chair, several weeks ago, the Bloc Québecois suggested to the government a subsidy program that would cover a major portion of fixed costs for SMEs and organizations.Our goal was to prevent our SMEs and organizations, when they resume their activities, from offsetting their revenue shortfalls through credit, which would mire them even deeper into the vicious circle of indebtedness.

Can the Minister of Finance tell us why an appropriate and effective program has not been put in place to truly cover the fixed costs of SMEs and organizations so they can avoid this vicious circle.

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank the member for his question.

We know that the situation is very difficult for SMEs and that it is essential to take their fixed costs into consideration. That is why we have launched several programs. We began with the loans program for small and medium-sized businesses, which eliminates a portion of the loan.There is also the very important Canada emergency commercial rent assistance program.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Chair, it has become fairly obvious that the government has not done enough with respect to the fixed costs of SMEs and organizations and that businesses of all kinds are now being forced to consider terminating or substantially reducing their activities.

Is the government prepared to reimburse a significant share of these fixed costs through a genuine, concrete and effective—and I hope universal as well—50% refundable tax credit for eligible fixed costs for small businesses, business owners who draw dividends, and partnerships?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, it is of course very important to address the challenges facing SMEs. These challenges will clearly be serious, at least for the coming months. That is why we have launched several programs, which we will improve if problems persist. For example, we extended the eligibility criteria for our Small and medium-sized enterprise loan and guarantee program to ensure that as many businesses as possible could apply . We will continue to look into improvements—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Back to Mr. Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Chair, in fact, the statistics show that the Canada emergency commercial rent assistance program is not effective. Many PMEs and organizations are ineligible. And according to the latest survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 51% of owners do not use the program because they have to pay 25% of the rent. It is only to be expected that some should refuse to apply for this program to avoid having to provide a portion of the support.

Will the minister ever get around to listening to tenants and owners, and make the program more flexible? Since he is speaking about modernizing programs, would not the option of providing assistance directly to tenants have been fairer and more effective?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I know that the Canada emergency commercial rent assistance program raises several questions. The criteria were explained yesterday. We know that it's always important to listen to what people have to say. It's essential for everyone to cooperate in searching for solutions. We will of course continue to work with the provinces because this matter falls under their jurisdiction. Our program is clearly going to improve the situation for many companies and we will continue with—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Mr. Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Chair, once again I would like to ask if we can expect to see a refundable tax credit for eligible fixed costs to help our SMEs avoid the vicious circle of debt?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, we know that there are various interesting possibilities. For the time being, we have taken several steps to improve the situation of SMEs and we—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Back to Mr. Lemire.