Finance Committee on Nov. 20th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

You have twenty seconds.

[Garth Turner, Liberal, Halton, ON]

May I have a one-word answer from the six of you? Should the Bank of Canada cut interest rates? We'll start with Mr. Adams.

[David Adams]

I think if you look at the hint that was made in the press about that the other day and its impact on the dollar, I'll leave it at that.

[Garth Turner, Liberal, Halton, ON]

Okay. We have to be quick.

Mr. Stanford.

[Dr. Jim Stanford]

Yes.

[Garth Turner, Liberal, Halton, ON]

Yes?

Mr. Myers.

[Dr. Jayson Myers]

Yes.

[Garth Turner, Liberal, Halton, ON]

Yes.

Monsieur Lemaire.

[Laurent Lemaire]

Yes.

[Garth Turner, Liberal, Halton, ON]

Oui?

Mr. Drummond.

[Don Drummond]

Yes.

[Garth Turner, Liberal, Halton, ON]

There we have it. It's unanimous.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Mr. Wallace.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Thank you.

I remember campaigning with my colleague, who was in favour of the GST going to 5%. Those are interesting comments.

I'm going to stick with Mr. Myers. I brought your magazine, Mr. Myers, which I've read, and it's an excellent picture of you. I'm going to ask you a question from there.

I just want clarification. One of your policy recommendations is the harmonization of the sales tax with the GST. Our finance minister has been announcing that is where he would like to go. Obviously it's up to the provinces to join that bandwagon, and Mr. Drummond mentioned it earlier.

From your organization, what are you doing with the provinces to try to bring them on board?

[Dr. Jayson Myers]

We're very supportive of that and have been advocating that policy measure with all the provincial governments--Ontario west--whose sales taxes are not harmonized. I think it's a very important measure, and certainly we are urging it at the provincial government level and bringing our members to meetings, telling provincial governments that is a very important measure they should be pursuing.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

In the article I read in your magazine--and it talks about 20-20 division of the organization and where we should go--you do talk about the dollar, and this was last year. It says “last year” here, so you've been thinking about where it was going for a little while. You thought it might head to the 90¢ range.

[Dr. Jayson Myers]

I was wrong.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

You were close.

You also say in here that everyone should be ready to compete at par, and that it is a productivity issue.

What has your organization done to promote that concept with its members?

[Dr. Jayson Myers]

Right now, with cashflow under pressure, the most important thing companies can do is improve their operating efficiency so they have money to reinvest in new equipment and in training and in innovation. So we've been working very closely with manufacturers, implementing operational improvements, operating supply chain improvements.

We have a program in place trying to connect manufacturers to the opportunities in the western Canadian market, which is extremely important.

We've got a number of programs in place that assist manufacturers to reduce their energy consumption to save on their energy bills, which of course is a major area of cost increase. We're working at those levels.

And I'd say a couple of things. I don't know of any single manufacturer who doesn't know they've got to cut costs right now, so that's what they're really focused on and where we're trying to assist.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

A final question. In the same magazine there's an article from John Manley, who at one time was the finance minister in the Liberal government. His article is about the strength of the loonie and says it's a good thing. He says in his last statement:

A strong economy, a strong currency reflects an economy with swagger. Canadians should be enjoying their increased wealth by taking a global view of our ability to compete and to win on the world's economic stage.

Would you agree with Mr. Manley's view of things in this article?

[Dr. Jayson Myers]

I think in the long term the industrial base we will have and the businesses we will have at a dollar that's at par, or $1.10 or $1.20, are going to have to be of much higher value, much more specialized, much faster, much more customized--all of that. That's extremely important. That's where we want to go in the long term. I guess all of that depends on investments in the short term, and that's where the problems are right now.

I agree, in the long term a high dollar will be a reflection of a very strong and very competitive business sector and economy. How do we get there? How do we make those investments?

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

To enable the committee to discern and understand what is happening, the next group is coming in and we will have five presenters. However, we are going to be interrupted by the bells, so we wish to get through those five presenters and have a quick round of questions and answers.

Mr. Mulcair has come late. He's missed his slot, but he would like to ask a quick round, if that's okay. With the tolerance of the committee, I will allow it.

Seeing no objection, the floor is yours, Mr. Mulcair.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

My question is for Mr. Beatty, from the Toyota company.

Mr. Beatty, could you give us an idea about the difference in price between a Toyota Corolla purchased in Canada and the same car purchased in Detroit?

[Stephen Beatty]

It would depend on the precise model, of course, but--