Economic Relationship between Canada and the United States Committee on April 1st, 2021

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

I stopped the clock, Mr. Savard-Tremblay. You still have four minutes left.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

In that case, I can start my question over again.

It goes without saying that we often have privileged access to government procurement and government contracts from partner countries, when there are trade agreements, of course. In this case, the fact remains that the Small Business Act also exists.

I'll come back to my question. In the Canadian context, couldn't we use this model to adopt a similar law or order to give priority to Canadian and Quebec SMEs?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you.

At present, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and I work together in a whole-of-government approach. There's a function here that is doing a lot of work to provide greater opportunities for our small and medium-sized businesses to have access to the business we offer, I suppose, as government, but in addition to that I, of course, lead both the Black entrepreneurship strategy, as well as the women's entrepreneurship strategy. This is about being able to also, again, create more opportunities and build that infrastructure in those ecosystems to help our Canadian businesses get a leg up to pursue opportunities and to be successful in those opportunities.

For me, as the trade minister, I have what I call the “trade tool kit”, a trade tool kit that puts EDC, BDC, the trade commissioner service, Invest in Canada and the Canadian Commercial Corporation together in a way such that I focus our energies to help our small and medium-sized businesses get access to those businesses, not the least of which is the trade accelerator program that we've put together, which has helped literally many businesses to grow and to grow into those export markets. That work is a top commitment of mine. I've been doing that from day one as the Minister of Small Business to help them get access and to get the capacity and to build.

In fact, right now, I'm on a virtual trade mission to France. I have 300 companies in France doing work, building relationships and business-to-business opportunities and finding investment attraction. That's on top of some of the other virtual trade missions, which I would love to talk more about, but I feel that I should let you ask the next question.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you, Madam Minister.

Are the provinces and Quebec being consulted in the development of your strategy to deal with the challenge of American protectionism?

The U.S. is the main partner in many cases, especially in Quebec. Has Quebec been included in the thinking around a possible strategy?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Absolutely.

We work as team Canada. Team Canada must include our provincial and territorial partners, businesses and workers.

When we think about Quebec, who cannot think about the aluminum producers? The lowest carbon footprint in the world and the world's first carbon-free aluminum smelting technology is being commercialized in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean in a joint venture between the U.S.-based Alcoa and Rio Tinto. If adopted, this technology could reduce annual carbon emissions by approximately seven million tonnes, which is equivalent to removing 1.8 million Canadian autos from the road. This is the kind of innovation here in Canada—in Quebec certainly. There is also the use of decarbonized cement made by a company out of Nova Scotia, CarbonCure, in building Amazon's headquarters in the U.S. There are a lot of synergies that way.

That said, absolutely, we must work with our colleagues, the provinces and territories, and industry as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

Thank you, Mr. Savard-Tremblay.

Mr. Cannings, welcome to the committee. It's good to see you.

You have six minutes, sir.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

[Technical difficulty—Editor] it doesn't seem very long ago that you were before us at the natural resources committee, where we talked a lot about softwood lumber, so I won't go down that road.

I represent the riding of South Okanagan—West Kootenay, a border riding, where I have five border crossings in my riding and a couple just outside, on the very edges, so cross-border trade is hugely important. As Mrs. Romanado reminded me in the chatter before we started the meeting, “You have wine”. It is a huge part of the economy here. We grow the best grapes and make the best wine in Canada. Wine is, I think, a $6-billion industry in the country, but it has faced a number of international trade disputes over the past few years, and one in particular resulted in Canada's saying that it would get rid of the excise tax exemptions for most small Canadian wineries by 2022. That is going to have a huge impact on many small Canadian wineries, including most of the wineries in my riding, for instance. Wine Growers Canada has asked that a trade legal replacement for this exemption be introduced to support the industry, much like other countries around the world, including Australia and the United States, support their industries.

Can you let us know if such a program will be included in the upcoming budget?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Cannings. It's lovely to see you.

You're right. It feels like I've seen many colleagues at the different committees I've been to of late, but it's wonderful.

I've been to your riding, and it's wonderful out there. I think what I will do is leave it to the Minister of Finance to share the budget with all of you when she tables it. So, why don't I leave it there?

I can assure you that we absolutely recognize the tremendous value of the wine industry and the contribution of that sector, which is world-renowned, to our reputation as world-class agricultural producers, particularly in wine, as I say. On this issue, I continue to work very closely with the industry, and also with provinces [Technical difficulty—Editor] so that we have the right mechanisms in place to continue to support not only the viability, but also the opportunities that continue for the Canadian wine industry, both domestically and in its exports abroad.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

You mentioned the domestic part. You're also the minister for small business, as I understand it. I'm wondering if you could expand on any efforts your government has been making to eliminate the interprovincial trade barriers for wine and beer makers. This is perhaps an even bigger problem.

On that, my neighbouring MP, Dan Albas, has a private member's bill that would allow Canada Post to ship beer and wine between provinces. I'm wondering what your government's thought is on that bill.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Around interprovincial trade, I know that my colleagues, both Minister LeBlanc as well as Minister Champagne, are working very actively on that. We understand the value of removing those barriers in the interests of our Canadian businesses and, you're absolutely right, small businesses. As we do with virtually all of our work, we are working whole-of-government so that we are pointing our capabilities to the Canadian end of the business that are the recipients of this. We are working very hard on the interprovincial movement of goods.

In the meantime, I continue to help our Canadian companies find those markets and pursue greater export into the many markets that are afforded by so many of the trade agreements we have today. It's nice to be in the position, especially as I meet with my G7 colleagues, to be the only one around the table who has an agreement with all of them.

All of this is to say that we need to keep doing the work to help them export and to create opportunities for them to also take advantage of the domestic market.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

I have time for just one quick question, Minister. I can't resist getting back into forestry. I won't mention softwood lumber, but as you know, from your previous life on [Technical difficulty—Editor] I'm a big proponent of mass timber, engineered wood and these products that can be shipped to the United States without the problematic tariffs of softwood lumber. I'm wondering if you can comment on whether those products will be affected by any of the two or three buy America programs we've heard about.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Of course, we continue to work with the United States on any provisions that might increase American content. In that, as I said earlier, we will work to make sure that Canada isn't affected, or our supply chains. I do think, around softwood lumber, that lumber prices are high. That is causing harm to both workers and the sector. I think we need to keep pushing hard and to work on a negotiated settlement here.

I think both of us, both countries, are also committed to affordable housing. It's in everyone's interest to ensure that affordable housing is also increasingly more affordable to build as well. We will need to keep working together with our American partners on this front.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

We will now start our second round.

Ms. Alleslev, you have five minutes, please.

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here.

Canadians are coming to me saying that they're quite concerned that perhaps we're not taking this shift in the American position seriously enough. It looks like the Americans have been very clear on the direction they're taking. President Biden signed the executive order, right when he came in, around buy America. The road map that was just outlined focused on modernizing trade rules, including those related to procurement, to ensure that countries could use their own taxpayer dollars to spur domestic investment.

All the signalling is around domestic manufacturing capability in the U.S. and self-sufficiency, starting with these large infrastructure projects. Now we hear that an additional $2.3 trillion will be spent on infrastructure, going way beyond roads and bridges to investments in manufacturing and the expansion of broadband.

Can you give us a comprehensive list of all of the infrastructure elements that Canada cannot bid on as a result of this executive buy America order?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Let me begin by saying that I take this with absolute seriousness and priority, ensuring that my officials and I are working at this with absolute diligence. As I said, our government is—

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Minister, do you have a list?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I think I get a chance to respond in the same, equitable time, Mr. Chair? Is that right?

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Not at committee, Minister.

Do you have a comprehensive list of the things that Canada can't bid on?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

We're going to keep working with the Americans. The American administration has also said that it fully intends to respect trade agreements and trade rules. If there is an effort to expand or introduce new domestic content requirements, we will absolutely work to ensure that those do not apply to Canada or affect Canadian supply chains. We're going to do this with the strong team Canada approach that we have been taking. I would encourage all of us here to work together. I think all of us are here to work for our Canadian company workers—

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Minister, we haven't been successful in the past, such as in preventing KXL from being cancelled and preventing buy America from going into effect. Other witnesses, including the ambassador, have said that were probably not going to be able to change this legislation to make us exempt. Could you give us some idea of why you think we will be able to prevent further measures taken by the U.S. from affecting Canada?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Let me start with your original premise about the executive order on buy American. That does not apply to Canada.

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Buy America.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

On Buy America, as I said, if there are efforts to expand or introduce new domestic content requirements, we will absolutely work to make sure that these do not apply to Canada or affect the Canadian supply chains.