Mr. Chair, I want to thank you and all members of the committee for inviting me and for the work you do for all Canadians.
I also want to thank the Anishinabe Algonquin community where I grew up in the Upper Gatineau region, and which continues to share and preserve its unceded land for future generations. They are a model to be emulated.
After 39 years at EY, I recently started the next chapter of my career with the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations, CIRANO.
CIRANO provides a neutral, science-based forum that brings together global and local scientists, investors, standard setters and other stakeholders in the pursuit of one common goal, which is to accelerate the building of local and global market infrastructure, and the data and technology solutions required for sustainable finance and sustainable growth.
Our work plan is designed to help turn five critical issues into opportunities for our country.
First, public and private finance are required in support of transitions. Businesses are for profit and must deliver appropriate returns. It's the same for investors. Public finance must be leveraged smartly to enable the attraction of the private capital required to drive sustainable growth.
Second, support is needed for citizens impacted by transitions. Some jobs will change and some jobs will disappear. Some jurisdictions are making more progress than others to get relevant disclosure needed from employers to identify sectors, people and communities impacted by climate transitions. We will need similar information for AI transitions in order to develop support programs for people and communities impacted.
Third, global investors need consistent global sustainability disclosure. They've joined forces at the international level with global standard setters, IOSCO and central banks to get the information they need.
Progress is happening much faster than expected. Global investors are not waiting for country adoption to ask portfolio companies to reduce their scope 1 and 2 emissions, and to utilize their procurement power to engage with upstream value chains to reduce scope 3 emissions and align with other sustainable procurement requirements. When organizations like Apple, Microsoft, Walmart, Amazon, the City of Toronto or the City of Vancouver align their procurement practice to meet investor needs, Canadian businesses must adapt to keep access to market for their products.
Fourth, small and medium businesses feel the pressure from the buyers of their products, who are asking for higher sustainability maturity levels. SMEs need support to meet those new sustainable procurement and financing requirements.
Financial institutions and most large buyers are spending a lot of money to build technology platforms in support of SMEs. Some global industry associations are investing in industry solutions to ask for the same information in the same format for all suppliers globally. Lack of coordinated efforts to do this in Canada results in redundant costs and redundant requests for SMEs, which makes us less competitive. All this could be reduced with coordinated leadership efforts.
Fifth is the overload of regulation. The last thing we need is more regulations in this country. In the U.S., investors have worked with the federal, state and municipal governments to ask for the same baseline of sustainability disclosure. As a result, U.S. businesses experience a lower cost of doing business and faster approvals for projects.
Our work at CIRANO will contribute in two areas. It will provide evidence to support decisions and public policies that will accelerate rationalization and alignment of global sustainability standards that can be leveraged for private and public finance, consistent attributes of sustainable finance products, transition finance, infrastructure projects and carbon markets. We will also provide analysis to identify and compare best practices, tools and other sustainable growth accelerators to improve access to capital markets, reduce trade barriers, reduce compliance costs for business and accelerate project approvals.
I am proud of the voices of Canadian leaders from our scientific and financial markets, standard-setting and labour organizations, and first nations communities that are contributing to shape the global rules of the game to transform financial markets.
We also need to speak with one voice to guide and support the success of businesses and people in Canada. We at CIRANO will do our share to help you drive coordinated efforts for success.
A country like Canada, with one of the best energy mixes in the world, with natural resources, and with an educated and connected population, can and should be a global leader in sustainable growth and sustainable finance.
I will be pleased to answer your questions.
Thank you.