COVID-19 Pandemic Committee on May 13th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Mr. Kelly.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

[Inaudible—Editor] is Canada's AAA credit rating.

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canada came into this crisis with a very strong fiscal position, and of course we will experience challenges as we move forward, but we believe that we should experience those challenges as we support Canadians.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

What would the effect of a downgrade be on Canada's debt servicing costs?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, we will continue to focus on how we can support Canadians and Canadian businesses as we get through this challenge.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

How many private sector bank loans have been funded for small and medium-sized businesses under the business credit availability program?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, as the information on the business credit availability program becomes available, we are being fully transparent with the finance committee and with this House.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Does the minister know how many loans have been funded under that program?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'm not in the habit of memorizing every single number available to us, but what I can confirm is that we will be transparent with this House on the numbers as they become available.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Does the minister know the dollar amount or the approximate dollar amount so far lent and guaranteed by Export Development Canada?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, one number that would probably be helpful for people to understand is that we've now had over 550,000 approved loans under the CEBA program, representing over 20 billion dollars' worth of money that's actually—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Mr. Kelly.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Will the government fix the CEBA program to include businesses that pay owner-operators through dividends?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I think the language “fix” is incorrect, for more than 500,000 businesses have received this loan. Of course, we are always endeavouring to make sure it works for as many businesses as possible.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Will the government fix CEBA to cover small businesses that hire day labourers or subcontractors?

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The honourable minister.

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

Mr. Chair, again we've demonstrated flexibility and nimbleness when it comes to this program. We changed the eligibility criteria to make sure that more businesses can apply and be eligible for this program. We will endeavour to make sure that more Canadians have access to this program, particularly small businesses in rural and remote communities.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Will the government fix CEBA to cover business owners who use personal instead of business chequing accounts to operate their business?

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

Again, Mr. Chair, I want to highlight the fact that this has been a very positive program and well received by many small businesses. Over 590,000 small business loans have been issued, and that's a testament to the design of the program. We're going to make sure we continue to engage with small businesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The next question goes to Mr. Chong.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Last week, on Friday, Statistics Canada was to release labour force survey data at 8:30 a.m. eastern time, one of the most important and market-moving indicators of the month, but someone in the government leaked that information ahead of time, almost 45 minutes ahead of time, and exclusively to Bloomberg terminal users on Wall Street and on Bay Street, who pay thousands of dollars a month for those terminals.

Moving markets, the Canadian dollar moved eight basis points in that short period of time and billions were made or lost on the market. Section 34 of the Statistics Act makes it a criminal offence for someone to leak information that might influence stock, bond or currency markets.

Has the government notified the RCMP about what appears to be a criminal breach of the Statistics Act?

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The honourable minister.

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

Mr. Chair, I'd like to thank the honourable member for his question.

I, too, share the same concerns that he's highlighted with regard to this leak. This is completely unacceptable. That is why we're going to make sure that a proper and thorough examination is done, and going forward we want to make sure that no such breach or leak occurs.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Chair, Statistics Canada said that staffers and ministers' offices, including the Prime Minister's office, the finance minister's office, the employment minister's office and the industry minister's office, would have received this secret information no earlier than 2 p.m. the previous day.

Statistics Canada has also indicated that it has begun an internal investigation. Will the minister commit to fully co-operating with this investigation?

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

I'd like to remind the honourable colleague that our government has supported Statistics Canada. We're the ones who reintroduced the mandatory long-form census. We're the ones who funded more money for Statistics Canada. The member opposite knows that we'll be fully co-operative in any such investigation into any leak.