Evidence of meeting #170 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pei.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Peter Fragiskatos  London North Centre, Lib.
Leona Alleslev  Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
Karen Clare  Volunteer, PEI Home and School Federation
Shirley Pierce  Advocacy Officer, Prince Edward Island, National Association of Federal Retirees
Deborah Calviello  As an Individual
Mike Durant  As an Individual
Blair Corkum  President, Blair Corkum Financial Planning Inc.
Mike Schut  Vice-President, Administration and Human Resources, Bulk Carriers PEI Limited
Jennifer Evans  President, Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce
Penny Walsh-McGuire  Chief Executive Officer, Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce
Barry Gander  Co-Founder, i-Valley
Tony Walters  Vice-President, i-Valley
Kelly Doyle  President, PEI Select Tours Inc.
Katsue Masuda  PEI Select Tours Inc.
Tyson Kelly  Vice-President, Sales and Logistics, Bulk Carriers PEI Limited
Robert Ghiz  President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association
Andrew Lawless  Board Member, East Prince Agri-Environment Association
Reg Phelan  National Board Member, National Farmers Union
Brenda Simmons  Assistant General Manager, Prince Edward Island Potato Board
Arnold Croken  Chief Executive Officer, Summerside Port Corporation Inc.
Colin Jeffrey  Director, Trout River Environmental Committee Inc.
Douglas Campbell  District Director, Prince Edward Island, National Farmers Union
Iker Zulbaran  Member, University of Prince Edward Island Chapter, Engineers Without Borders Canada
Mary Cowper-Smith  As an Individual
Stuart Hickox  As an Individual

10 a.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

But he's still not a Canadian citizen.

10 a.m.

Vice-President, Administration and Human Resources, Bulk Carriers PEI Limited

Mike Schut

He has not become a Canadian citizen yet. I haven't asked him why. I know there are some barriers in that whole process as it relates to the long-haul truck drivers who exit Canada for trucking purposes—the number of days they're required to be in Canada to get that citizenship.

10 a.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

I think that's identifying another problem. That's someone who has worked here for 13 years and contributed to P.E.I. and Canada, and they're still not able to become a Canadian citizen.

Thank you.

10 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

You're out of time. That seven minutes goes by so fast when you're having fun, Peter.

Mike, you said that going from NOC C to NOC B would make a difference in getting temporary foreign workers for long-haul trucking. Can you explain why long-haul truck drivers should be considered skilled workers? In this day and age, you have to be a skilled worker to drive a truck, I'll tell you, but they're not considered as such. What difference would it make if the system were changed to call truck drivers NOC B rather than NOC C?

10:05 a.m.

Vice-President, Administration and Human Resources, Bulk Carriers PEI Limited

Mike Schut

Why should a long-haul truck driver be considered a skilled worker, as opposed to a low-skilled worker? In my paper, I presented a lot of reasons why. It's not just getting a licence and going down the road. There are ongoing certifications, ongoing medical examinations, ongoing licensing and testing, not just for driving the truck, but standard operating procedures for all the companies they deliver to or pick up from. There are continual changes to the requirements for crossing the international border as far as paperwork goes, CBSA requirements, and requirements for customs and border protection in the U.S. One slight mistake on that can cost $10,000 to $16,000 as far as penalties and assessments go. These gentlemen and ladies need to know what they're doing and need to be on top of their game.

10:05 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

Thank you.

Mr. Sorbara, we'll go to five-minute rounds.

10:05 a.m.

Liberal

Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for your presentations.

There are two issues. The first is the labour supply that's available to organizations. Our labour demands are obviously not being met. Some of the comments were around the temporary foreign worker program and the LMIA process, of which I'm very aware in Ontario and which is very cumbersome, I would argue.

When you make a mistake, you sometimes have to start right from the beginning. It would be like going on a road trip, getting pulled over for something, and having to go all the way back home to start again. It doesn't really make sense. I feel for you there. That's something we're going to have to seriously take a look at.

I wish to speak to the Chamber of Commerce on some of their remarks. As an economist, as someone who has worked on Wall Street and Bay Street, I would argue that the best measure of a country's financial position is its net debt-to-GDP ratio. In Canada it's about 31%. It's trending lower. In fact, I'll read to you part of the Parliamentary Budget Officer's fiscal sustainability report from September 27, 2018.

Current fiscal policy at the federal level is sustainable over the long term. PBO estimates that the federal government could permanently increase spending or reduce taxes by 1.4 per cent of GDP ($29 billion in current dollars) while maintaining net debt at its current (2017) level of 31.1 per cent of GDP over the long term.

We have the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio in all the G7 countries. We have an AAA credit rating, which has remained unchanged, thankfully.

The former Liberal administration of Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien fixed a number of things that needed to be fixed. I would argue that we are on the exact fiscal track that we need to be on, and our net debt-to-GDP ratio is declining. In fact, a lot of our fiscal gap is quite prudent. I'm going to stop there.

Blair, I have a quick question. There's one thing that you didn't bring up that I thought you'd bring up in terms of seniors planning, and that is the survivor benefit, the 60%. Someone passes away, and they are the spouse who is collecting CPP. Usually the male passes first, and he's the one collecting CPP. Many women haven't been in the labour force as long as men have, especially in that older generation. They're left much worse off, because they can only collect 60% of their spouse's benefit. I would, in fact, argue for a policy change to be implemented that would allow them to collect 100% of their spouse's benefit but maintain the cap at the current level of CPP, which is $1,100 and change. I believe I know what I am talking about there.

That would be another step toward eliminating seniors' poverty, especially among women seniors and single seniors. Is that correct?

10:05 a.m.

President, Blair Corkum Financial Planning Inc.

Blair Corkum

That's correct. You don't ask for too much at one time, so stay tuned for the future.

10:05 a.m.

Liberal

Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON

I have one more question, and that goes to the trucking association.

Are millennials or young folks interested in a trucking career, or are we entirely dependent on foreign-sourced labour?

October 1st, 2018 / 10:10 a.m.

Tyson Kelly Vice-President, Sales and Logistics, Bulk Carriers PEI Limited

There has not been education toward millennials in regard to becoming a transport driver. It is a very tough life. We have to work harder as an organizations to present that to the schools. I think that is going out with APTA. They've started a program now. They're going to all the counsellors at the schools and starting to try to provide more information to the students so they can at least have the option.

To answer the question, it's a tough life, and for the millennials we've been dealing with, that's definitely not what they want.

10:10 a.m.

Liberal

Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON

That also extends to Ontario. We have a similar issue regarding the trades. What I'm trying to argue for is what's called in the German model the parity of esteem, looking at a trade as equivalent to getting a sociology degree or a law degree. I think there needs to be a little change in mentality toward truckers, drywallers, plasterers or masons. I want to end it here.

It is a good day, in that we have some certainty with regard to the NAFTA agreement. We'll all look at the details and parse them. I hope the chamber of commerce will chime into this. Wouldn't you agree that it is a good day?

P.E.I. is an export-driven economy. It's an economy that benefits from tourism. A lot of international tourists come here. We have CETA, which I understand is good for the lobster fishers here, and it's good for the overall economy of P.E.I.

I'd love to get your take on that, please.

10:10 a.m.

President, Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce

Jennifer Evans

Absolutely. I think there was a collective national sigh of relief last night when that agreement did come through. Today will be spent analyzing the details to see what the repercussions and the consequences are for our P.E.I. businesses and Canadian business.

10:10 a.m.

Liberal

Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON

The Atlantic immigration pilot program made permanent is, I think, an excellent idea.

10:10 a.m.

President, Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce

Jennifer Evans

Thank you.

10:10 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter

Ms. Alleslev, go ahead.

10:10 a.m.

Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC

Leona Alleslev

There were too many fantastic presentations to be able to get to all of them. I'd like to focus, though, on Mr. Gander and Mr. Walters for the moment.

Your premise is that, absolutely, it should be a national strategy. This is no different from the railway of 1867. We need to have a digital infrastructure, which is essentially our ability to communicate with Canadians directly.

You mentioned that you want it to have municipal responsibility. Why not federal responsibility? We need to have that map to make sure it has gone from one end of the country to the other—a bit like in London, where the federal government owns the public transit.

10:10 a.m.

Co-Founder, i-Valley

Barry Gander

I'll clarify that. I didn't mean that the federal government should not be involved, but the municipal government should end up owning and controlling the network. It does in SWIFT. The federal government contributes, as do the provincial government and the municipalities. But ultimately the network is controlled by the municipalities. It's not owned by the municipalities. The companies own the network, and that's fine, as long as they agree and are controlled by the municipalities in saying how it would be run, how open access should work.

A vendor cannot put a network together that's open access. It just cannot be done.

10:10 a.m.

Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC

Leona Alleslev

So it would be a federal strategy, federal standards, municipally operated, and then a combination of ownership.

10:10 a.m.

Co-Founder, i-Valley

Barry Gander

That's right, yes. That would be absolutely fine.

Municipality, of course, means rural as well, because there are communities within sight of the CN Tower that have appalling service, and it's because they're in a rural municipality area. I called together a meeting of the mayors in the northern part of Toronto to hear from Brad Woodside, from Fredericton, because the Atlantic is ahead of Ontario in many ways. They were stunned to hear what they needed to do to pull themselves together to get Toronto up to the speed of Fredericton.

10:10 a.m.

Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC

Leona Alleslev

Yes, it's outstanding.

10:10 a.m.

Co-Founder, i-Valley

Barry Gander

This community is strange.

10:10 a.m.

Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC

Leona Alleslev

So there's a sense of urgency.

10:10 a.m.

Co-Founder, i-Valley

10:10 a.m.

Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC

Leona Alleslev

Thank you.

Ms. Evans, I'd like to get your perspective on NAFTA. Is there a sigh of relief because we have a deal or because there are some specific things that you believe are better than what we had before? Typically, when you renegotiate a trade agreement, you make things better. Could you tell us whether you're just relieved that there is a deal, because any deal is better than no deal, or whether there are specifics that are better?

10:15 a.m.

President, Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce

Jennifer Evans

Certainly, last night it was relief that there was a deal. It is too soon for us to comment officially on what our position is on the deal. We are just going over those details today, and we'll see where the chips fall. It's a little premature for us to have a formal position on the details.