COVID-19 Pandemic Committee on May 13th, 2020

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

It's too bad, Mr. Chair, because it's the boss who is in front of me, here in committee. It's good that the citizen calls the public servant, but the public servant's boss is the Treasury Board President. Can he give a clear indication to citizens?

What should they do now with the emergency assistance they received with this month's benefit? Should they keep it in full or pay it back now?

I'd like a clear answer, please.

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

Again, I recognize the importance of insisting on clarity. What's clear here is that each person must make decisions based on his or her own circumstances, and the responsible way to act is to interact with public servants at Service Canada or the Canada Revenue Agency.

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

Service Canada employees must have clear instructions from their boss. The boss is here. This is the President of the Treasury Board.

Could the President of the Treasury Board, in very clear terms, tell the employees answering questions from Canadians what they have to say to those currently receiving the Canada emergency response benefit, but who are actually at work?

These are honest people. They are not fraudsters. They want to comply with the law. Can the President of the Treasury Board give them clear instructions?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

That is extraordinary, because my colleague focused on two key terms: honesty and hard work. In terms of the honesty of Canadians, in all cases, I am convinced that they will contact the appropriate officials. As for the hard work of those officials, they know what they have to do and they have been doing it in an exemplary way since the crisis began.

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

And yet those good officials, whom I frequently commend on social media for their excellent work, have no clear instructions from their boss.

Mr. President, let me go back to the basic question. The National Post said that 200,000 Canadians have used the emergency assistance fraudulently, to the tune of $1.6 billion.

Is that the case, yes or no?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Québec, QC]

I am sure that the honourable member is not questioning the ability of Canada Revenue Agency officers to follow the very clear directive of ensuring that the mechanisms reflect the importance of maintaining the integrity of the Government of Canada during the exceptional circumstances we are experiencing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

We'll now go on to Ms. Gray.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Chair, last week British Columbia unveiled its plan to begin reopening its economy. I've been speaking with many business owners and business associations in my riding, and I'm hearing that they're not getting their orders for cleaning supplies. Some businesses have said their back orders go back to March. They do not know how they can possibly reopen if they are not meeting health cleaning standards or accessing PPE for their employees and customers. They are well aware of the issues arising from this government's reliance on Chinese manufacturing rather than building capacity here.

What is the government doing to address these issues and ensure wholesale supply companies get products now so that they can distribute them to the businesses that need them?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Chair, our government is rapidly and aggressively buying life-saving equipment that Canada needs from a diverse range of suppliers. We are building up domestic capacity as well as procuring internationally. Our priority is to make sure front-line health care workers have the support they need.

In terms of other areas of the economy, we are working with our federal and provincial counterparts to make sure that we can do so in collaboration with them.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Chair, an ongoing concern I've heard from small business owners is that they are ineligible for CEBA because they don't have a business account. When I brought up this point to small business minister Ng at committee, she said it was the first time that she had heard of this issue and that she would follow up.

I asked this question on April 23, and it's now been almost three weeks. Small business has been let down. Can the government confirm that they're going to fix this issue?

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

Chair, I'd like to thank the honourable member for her question. It is really important that this program that we've established help small businesses. We have shown in the past that we're very flexible and nimble in accommodating the needs of businesses.

I assure the member opposite that we are looking into this matter and will come forward with a resolution in a timely manner.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Chair, I just read another email from a small business owner this morning who has been let down by the government. He chose to pay off debts instead of paying himself a wage; therefore, he's ineligible for CEBA, for that loan. Owner-operators have been eliminated from participating in government programs because they did not put themselves on the payroll. This shows a true lack of understanding of small businesses and especially of owner-operators.

Will the government commit to fixing this issue?

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

Thank you very much. Again, I want to thank the honourable member for her question. We have focused particularly on small businesses to make sure they have the appropriate support they need.

With regard to the program that she highlighted, we have shown flexibility in the eligibility criteria by decreasing the payroll threshold for individual companies that want to apply for this loan to $20,000 versus $50,000, and the upper limit has gone to $1.5 million versus $1 million. We will continue to bring forward the changes necessary to have more businesses—

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

This government has left Canadian craft breweries out to dry, like the hops in their beer. On April 24, the Canadian Craft Brewers Association released a report on the effects of COVID-19 on the Canadian craft brewing industry. The report states that 38% of craft brewers did not qualify for the Canadian emergency wage subsidy in March, and 53% were either not sure or predicted that they would not qualify in April. Many a brew pub, like BNA in my riding, due to higher payrolls are also not eligible for the CEBA loan. They have been left out and let down. Five per cent of these breweries have already closed permanently, and others are on the verge of doing so. A portion have stepped up and are making PPE.

Will this government take the initiative to support this industry by amending program requirements?

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

When it comes to the Canada emergency wage subsidy, we have demonstrated flexibility and nimbleness. The program requirement changed in terms of revenue threshold. We originally had 30% for the month of March. We changed that to 15%. The eligibility criteria to compare to the first two months of this year now also compare to the previous year as well. We're going to continue to make changes to make sure more businesses can access this program.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Ms. Gray, you have 33 seconds.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

In my constituency, Okanagan fruit production is a huge industry, and many apple orchardists have brought concerns to me regarding high costs, apples from last season selling below cost, the CUSMA agreement not helping the industy, and low-priced Washington apples flooding our market. COVID-19 has exacerbated their dire financial situation. The BC Fruit Growers' Association has called the government announcements of measures for agriculture “underwhelming”.

I questioned Minister Bibeau in the House a couple of months ago, and at the time she did not have an answer. What is the plan to help our orchardists?

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The honourable minister.

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Since this crisis began, we have been helping entrepreneurs in all sectors. We began with measures to assist small, medium and large companies, and we are now going progressively sector by sector.

Last week, we announced additional funding for agriculture—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

We'll now go on to Mr. Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Chair, in my riding of Foothills, we've established a Foothills business recovery task force. We surveyed hundreds of small business owners about the effectiveness of the emergency programs put forward by the government. The results of that survey were quite alarming. More than half of the respondents have not qualified for any of the programs, and the vast majority of them have said their businesses will not last more than another month.

Will the government expand the eligibility for some of these programs to include sole proprietorships, or is the government still looking at refunding the GST paid by some of the businesses over the last year?

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

Mr. Chair, I want to highlight the fact that we have issued 590,000 loans through the CEBA account. This demonstrates that this particular program is working and that businesses are taking advantage of it. We recognize that we want to be more generous and more thoughtful about these programs. We've demonstrated flexibility in the past and we will continue to be nimble going forward.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Chair, to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Charlebois said that we are on the precipice of losing 15% of our farms and that 30,000 farm families are at risk of bankruptcy. This will have a devastating effect on our rural economies.

Does the minister know the impact that losing 30,000 family farms will have on our food security and the price of groceries on the store shelves?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Chair, the agriculture and agri-food sector is extremely important. We have clearly stated that it is an essential service. That is why we have risk management programs that are already well established.

I understand that producers would like the programs to be more generous, and we are ready to do more, but they first need to use those programs. They have $1.6 billion available—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Chair, business risk management programs don't apply to every single stakeholder and the programs are not working for the producers. There is a bottleneck right now in our processing capacity. When the minister renounced the AgriRecovery program, funds were set aside for cattle and pork producers. When is that money going to be available, and how long will it last?