Evidence of meeting #171 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was airports.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Mr. Mullin, would you like to jump in for the board of trade?
10:05 a.m.
Treasurer, Saint John Board of Trade
I completely agree with Mr. Irving. One thing I would add on to the productivity front is that we have to get to the point where good environmental stewardship can coexist with economic growth. They can coexist. They are not mutually exclusive. When they coexist, the projects are better. There are better results for the economy. We have to work together to come to an understanding of how we can proceed to get things done.
With respect to the capital cost allowance, when you're looking at and evaluating the project, you're looking at your return on investment. If you can use the deduction quicker—your time value of money—it improves your return on investment. There are other countries around the world that use a 125% rate on eligible investment, which just further accelerates the return on investment, making it more attractive and drawing more money into the community.
10:05 a.m.
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
Mr. Mullin, your presentation was fantastic and quite comprehensive, and I didn't get to take down everything you said that I wanted to take down. Is there any way I could encourage you to put some of it in writing and make a submission to our investigation, so that we can have it all?
Thank you. To that point, can you help me with number five? I missed it. Can you tell us what your points were on point five?
10:05 a.m.
Treasurer, Saint John Board of Trade
On our fifth pillar, I was getting long-winded, so I skipped it. I was respecting the committee's time and that of the other witnesses. I was at six minutes and I thought I'd better close.
The fifth pillar is labour force development. We said we need to continue to develop our labour workforce by expanding incentives to attract Canadians to relocate to New Brunswick and improving our recognition of foreign credentials for those in New Brunswick and those who want to come here.
Essentially, we have immigrants in New Brunswick and across Canada who are highly trained and qualified in their own countries but can't get their certification. An example I'm aware of is somebody in New Brunswick who was a dentist in the Middle East. It took them four years to get their credentials recognized in Canada.
10:05 a.m.
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
Perfect.
What are some of the ways to attract people?
10:05 a.m.
Treasurer, Saint John Board of Trade
The major one is to make sure there are opportunities and that people are aware of the opportunities in New Brunswick, or in other Maritime provinces, because Toronto is the—
10:05 a.m.
Treasurer, Saint John Board of Trade
I wasn't going to say that, because there are people from Ontario here, but there are a lot of draws to Ontario. People know about Toronto. They know about Calgary. They know about Vancouver. To the comment that I made at the beginning, though, I was born in northern New Brunswick and I truly believe New Brunswick is the best place to live. If we can communicate that message, we can interest more people in coming and witnessing and experiencing that yes, it is.
10:05 a.m.
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
Fantastic.
You also then talked about better financial backstops for exports. Can you please give me some idea of what you mean by that, and what we can do to better financially backstop to support exports?
10:05 a.m.
Treasurer, Saint John Board of Trade
It's mainly continuation. There have been trade missions that have been led by various parties and various governments to encourage exports. Governments have been doing a very good job of opening up free markets—I think the number that was stated yesterday was 1.5 billion consumers or businesses who have access to the Canadian government at the conclusion of the USMCA.
However, they could also provide financial backing to expand business that is specifically going to an export market outside the United States. For example, if they're going to Europe, EDC—the export development bank—offers some support, but the commitments and repayment terms need to be a little more flexible.
10:10 a.m.
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
You would see the new markets like the ones opened up by CETA and CPTPP. Should there perhaps be a different structure to encourage it more?
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
10:10 a.m.
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
Thank you very much.
On the next thing that you both talked about, Mr. Irving, you made reference to a statistic on our governance or our bureaucracy. Could you give that to me again, and then give me some idea of what we need to do to address it?
10:10 a.m.
Co-Chief Executive Officer, J.D. Irving, Limited
Is that about Canada ranking at 34 out of of 35 in the OECD countries? Is that the stat? I'm not sure.
10:10 a.m.
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
No. I think it's the last one that you gave around governing, bureaucracy and being able to sort of.... I wasn't exactly sure.
10:10 a.m.
Co-Chief Executive Officer, J.D. Irving, Limited
Okay. I'm not quite sure which one it is, but....
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I think it was that we were last among advanced countries in regulatory burden.
10:10 a.m.
Co-Chief Executive Officer, J.D. Irving, Limited
Okay.
It's surprising. I was on this task force, and that's how I was made more aware of all these issues than I already was. There's a very comprehensive report that's going to be issued by the federal government, I believe, if it's not out now. I think it is out now, as a matter of fact. I'll follow up and get you a copy of it.
It highlights all these issues, and there are recommendations throughout. These are folks from the mining sector, the oil and gas sector and the forestry sector. This is across the country, but the theme is the same. It's all the same theme about red tape burden, confusion and delays, delays, delays. This is something that has built up over time. We have to decide how we want to deal with it in an efficient manner.
The government people, the bureaucrats are all good people, but they have a certain process that they follow, and that has to be the process. Unfortunately, when you're out there you're competing against China, India and all these other jurisdictions, and we have to be quite agile. We have to be on the ball.
10:10 a.m.
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
Nothing in particular is coming to your mind in terms of what you're referring to? It's basically a general overview of processes and procedure, bureaucracy and timeliness.
10:10 a.m.
Co-Chief Executive Officer, J.D. Irving, Limited
Yes. It's all under those headings. Take every sector. If you talk to the mining guys, they'll give you this. The pipelines are a case in point. How long have we been trying to get the crude out of Alberta on a competitive basis?
10:10 a.m.
Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, CPC
That's perfect.
Could you give me a feel for the relationship between federal and provincial governance and whether that has an impact?