Good morning.
The Québec City Chamber of Commerce and Industry represents over 4,500 members, businesses, and delegates. It speaks for Quebec City's business community, and Quebec City will be the focus of my presentation today. We are well aware that the three subjects we will be raising today, two of them in particular, demand federal-provincial collaboration. This morning, we'll consider the broad strokes, but the chamber of commerce will of course look at things in much greater detail after the budget is tabled.
The three subjects we want to focus on this morning are immigration and its potential for addressing the labour shortage; tax fairness, specifically in relation to online commerce; and our businesses' ability to compete following the latest developments in negotiations for the newly renamed NAFTA.
With respect to the labour shortage and immigration, as you know, many believe we must resolve immigration issues if we are to resolve the labour shortage plaguing our capital in particular. While immigration is not the only solution—we also have to consider labour market reintegration measures and find ways to keep older people on the job—it is undeniably key to addressing this situation.
According to an Institut du Québec study on immigration and the labour market, one thing we know for sure is that most of the people who immigrate to Quebec settle in Montreal, with other regions suffering as a result. In 2017, 76% of permanent residents settled in Montreal and 42% were French-speaking. It is clear to the chamber of commerce that we need to work toward a better distribution of immigrants across Quebec. I should add that, between 2012 and 2017, 6.2% of international immigrants to Quebec settled in and around the capital, a region that accounted for about 10% of the population. While the situation is improving, it is very clear to us that more can be done.
To that end, the chamber of commerce believes that employment is one of the best ways to integrate an individual into the community. That makes the Quebec City region a great place to optimize retention and integration, and it is clear to the chamber of commerce that immigration is a great way to address the labour shortage. The chamber of commerce is therefore counting on the next budget to create the right conditions for achieving this goal through federal-provincial collaboration.
Now I'll move on to tax fairness.
Tax fairness is an extremely sensitive issue in our area. Community leaders have publicly expressed outrage over this issue, and the chamber of commerce has every reason to support their demands.
As far back as 2015, the Institut du Québec observed that Quebec businesses are behind the e-commerce times. At the time, Quebeckers made $6 billion worth of purchases online, but spent only $1.7 billion of that on Quebec-based websites. We kept encouraging Quebec businesses to focus on online sales to strengthen Quebec's ability to compete internationally. The problem is that provincial and federal tax systems are not designed for the world of online commerce. Goods purchased online from vendors outside Quebec are not subject to GST or QST. That makes it impossible for our businesses to compete.
The chamber of commerce would like to see our governments follow in the footsteps of countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and India, which have taken action guided by OECD recommendations that consumption taxes should be collected by the country in which the consumption takes place and that vendors should collect the tax.
The chamber of commerce firmly believes that this issue deserves more attention and that Quebec and Canada should work together to fix or at least improve the situation.
Lastly, with respect to competitiveness and the NAFTA context, the chamber of commerce is certainly glad that an agreement in principle has been signed, which should stabilize the economic climate and dispel uncertainty. Even so, some organizations have expressed various concerns and raised quite a few questions about the agreement. I'm talking about the agricultural sector, of course.
The chamber of commerce hopes that, in the near future, the concept of fairness will become the norm in order to keep all of the country's economic sectors healthy and safe. Here again, the chamber of commerce will be paying very close attention to all measures implemented to resolve or at least mitigate this issue.
In closing, the Québec City Chamber of Commerce and Industry's purpose in appearing before the Standing Committee on Finance is to bring the committee's attention to issues of concern to its members. Specifically with respect to the current context, the chamber of commerce wishes to emphasize that collaboration is key to preserving a stable economic climate, helping our businesses grow, and creating wealth here at home.
Let me reiterate that the chamber of commerce will be paying close attention to any measures taken as it advocates on behalf of Quebec City's business community.
Thank you.