Finance Committee on Sept. 20th, 2016

[Patrick Dorsey]

Yes, projects.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Do you want anything back in writing on that?

[Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Liberal, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Yes, of course.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

If you can provide a little further information in writing to the clerk, Mr. Dorsey, that would be great.

Mr. McColeman, you have five minutes.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Thank you for being here. Could you give us an update on the status of the electrical cable between New Brunswick and P.E.I.?

[Patrick Dorsey]

Work was initiated this fall on site preparation. There was a previous announcement by the Government of Canada and the P.E.I. government on funding for the initiative. Work will continue.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Okay, is there a completion date?

[Patrick Dorsey]

I believe the completion date is two years, if everything goes according to plan.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

That's not ACOA's responsibility, though.

[Patrick Dorsey]

No.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

But it's important.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

It's important, yes.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

It's important for the economy of P.E.I., obviously.

I'm going to ask you a question similar to the one I asked others. It's not a forestry question.

It's regarding any companies on P.E.I. that you're aware of for whom part of their business would have been as suppliers to the oil sands or anything to do with the production of oil. How have they been affected by the downturn in the price of oil?

[Patrick Dorsey]

We do have businesses in Prince Edward Island, both in the manufacturing sector—MacDougall Steel Erectors Inc. from Borden-Carleton was a supplier to Alberta industry—and also in professional services. A number of professional services firms, IT, accounting, and others did work in that field. I haven't heard any direct feedback from those firms about what impact the oil price has had on them, but anecdotally I would suggest it hasn't been positive.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Have there been job losses perhaps?

[Patrick Dorsey]

I can't point to a particular company or project that has been directly impacted by that.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

On your comment about the United States being one of your major customers for products produced on the island and the fact that has not been a good thing, it seems to me that with the dollar the way it is and the competitiveness of the dollar in terms of U.S. dollars being much higher, that would produce huge opportunities for more exports. Can you explain why that's not happening?

[Patrick Dorsey]

It is.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Oh, it is?

[Patrick Dorsey]

Yes. I apologize if I wasn't clear. I didn't want to suggest that the American market isn't important. It is very important and continues to be very important. As I said, over 50% of our goods go there. The currency right now has had a great impact on exports, and I would suggest on the tourism side that's been important as well.

Where we see opportunities as those markets become more mature is for regional development agencies like ACOA to support companies that want to get into more developmental markets, companies that are trading in the United States that have been there for a long time, that know the market, that understand it well. I'm not sure our resources are best aligned with them. It's with companies that are either not in that market or see opportunities elsewhere.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

If I'm a company manufacturing a particular product—I'll take an example from my riding. They decided to go into another line of products, another branch of their business to create another sales opportunity to build their business. Would ACOA be in a position to help them expand their business to do that?

[Patrick Dorsey]

Absolutely, that's the intent of our business development program.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

In many of the other areas of the Maritimes, as our chair said, there has been out-migration of their labour primarily to the west for the boom in the last number of years, to work in the oil sands. Anecdotally, having spent some time in the Maritimes, these individuals now find themselves without jobs and are returning. Is that happening in P.E.I.?

[Patrick Dorsey]

Anecdotally it is. There are more instances, particularly in the trades where there was high demand for skilled workers in the trades in Prince Edward Island where they could not attract those people, and that is improving to a certain extent. Prince Edward Island still has a challenge around out-migration, particularly of young people, young graduates who are still pursuing careers either in western Canada or in Ontario.

Our population growth has led the region with around 3.5% but that's been directly related to immigration from outside Canada.