Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Jim Laws, and I'm the executive director of the Canadian Meat Council here in Ottawa.
The meat processing industry is the largest component of Canada's food processing sector, with annual revenues valued at over $24 billion and total employment of over 70,000 people.
Canada's meat processing industry adds value to the live animals born and raised on Canadian farms, provides a critical market outlet, and supports the viability of thousands of livestock farmers. I am pleased to provide three brief comments on Bill C-60, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 21, 2013 and other measures.
First, we are pleased with part 1 of Bill C-60, which provides for a two-year extension of the temporary accelerated capital cost allowance for eligible manufacturing and processing equipment. The changes to the income tax regulations state that a taxpayer who acquires a property after March 18, 2007 and before 2016 that is manufacturing or processing equipment may elect to include the property in class 29 of schedule 2. That effectively allows a classification with a higher percentage depreciation rate. Given the high value of the Canadian dollar, it is critical for our meat processing industry to make capital investments to become more competitive in the long run. We believe that the accelerated capital cost allowance should be made permanent. If that cannot be done, we recommend that the accelerated capital cost allowance be extended for a period of at least five years. This is the typical time it takes to plan, budget, commission, and complete a significant capital project.
Second, in Part 3 of Bill C-60, Canada's meat industry supports the government's proposal to extend the preferential tariff treatments for developing and least-developed countries that was established in 1974. Bill C-60 will change sections 36 and 40 of the Customs Tariff, from an expiry date of June 30, 2014, to December 31, 2024, or on an earlier date that may be fixed by the order of the Governor in Council.
Canada should do this because preferential tariffs are intended to increase the export earnings and promote the economic development of developing and least-developed countries. At the same time, we also support the government's intention to modify the list of beneficiary countries and withdraw from the general preferential tariff eligibility the 72 countries that have achieved significant shifts in income levels and trade competitiveness.
We also believe that the government should put these measures in place on a permanent basis. It should, however, review the list of countries that are classified as either developing or least developed on a much more regular basis. We fully support the government of Canada in its efforts to eliminate tariffs by opening more markets to our goods, especially Canadian meat products, and by diversifying our trade with more reciprocal trade agreements, such as the Canada-European comprehensive economic and trade agreement, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
Our third and last comment is that Canada's meat industry is very concerned with Division 9 of Part 3 of Bill C-60 that amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to authorize the revocation of temporary foreign worker permits, the revocation and suspension of opinions provided by the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development with respect to an application for a work permit, and refusal to process requests for such opinions.
We are also concerned that Bill C-60 authorizes fees to be paid for rights and privileges conferred by means of a work permit, while at the same time exempts those fees from the application of the User Fees Act. Continued access to foreign workers is not only critical to the meat industry, it is of significant benefit to Canadian farmers, workers, consumers, and municipalities. Unfortunately, a combination of misinformation and allegations of potential misuse by a few seem to be putting in serious jeopardy the best interests of the many.
Canadian meat processing companies are always looking to hire Canadians first. The clearly documented reality of our industry is that the jobs available at many locations exceed, by far, the number of Canadians who are able and willing to perform the physically arduous tasks that are required. Many of the unfilled positions would require that Canadians relocate to rural communities.
Unlike some of the stories we've heard in the news, our experience has been that the costs associated with employing temporary foreign workers are substantially greater. Foreign workers are members of the same labour unions and receive the same salaries and benefits as Canadians in Canada's meat industry. In addition, there are additional employer expenditures, such as the return airfare to the home country, worker compensation, housing standards, etc.
Foreign workers perform tasks for which there is an insufficient number of Canadians available. The important contributions they make will allow meat processing plants to remain in operation, thereby supporting jobs for thousands of Canadian workers.