Finance Committee on Sept. 20th, 2016

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

Would you need more money?

[Manon Brassard]

No. What I'm saying is that, right now, applications are being analyzed as part of our CIP 150.

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

The 150th anniversary is very interesting and all, but what I'm interested in is the long-term economic development, meaning the fact that real companies are being created, and not just that you're launching a project. For instance, there's a $300,000 program in L'Ancienne-Lorette to support ball sports and to rehabilitate community infrastructures for Canada's 150th anniversary.

[Manon Brassard]

Yes.

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

Instead, I'd like to talk about long-term programs and the CED's primary and core mandate.

How many of these programs do you have?

[Manon Brassard]

Do you mean our regular programs?

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

Exactly.

[Manon Brassard]

As for our regular programs, as I was saying, we are talking about 19 programs and $7 million in the last four years.

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

Right.

Which industries are you helping exactly? Do you know what types of industries are involved? Are we talking about the tourism industry?

[Manon Brassard]

Mr. Mongeau, could you please answer the question?

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

Are we talking about stewardship of resources?

[Pierre-Marc Mongeau]

Thank you for the question.

Among the various types of organizations we support and have supported in recent years, some were non-profits. For example, we started up a laundry near Sept-Îles. People in the region take care of the laundry. Eight jobs were created. They wash all the dirty clothes of the employees of a mining company in the region. We're certainly talking about eight or 10 jobs.

However, I would say that one of the main things we are currently developing is tourism in the far north. We are also giving significant help to agencies like NIC, the Nunavik Investment Corp. We are working with that company, which receives funding annually to promote tourism in its region.

We are focusing a lot on the tourism industry.

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

Have you supported the Saint-Jean hot air balloon festival? Unless I'm mistaken, I think there was $500,000 just for that project. Are there comparable amounts for some indigenous communities to create a festival? I know that the Saint-Jean hot air balloons are important. I don't want to dwell on that because there isn't a lot of time. You can send us the information about this later.

What problems do you encounter when you work with indigenous communities? What difficulties are there? Is there a direction we should take in the future?

[Manon Brassard]

During its engagement strategy, CED met with indigenous communities. Business office directors also met with leaders in their regions. I think the dialogue is resuming in a more structured and stronger way. We will be in a better position to answer your questions in the coming months.

One thing we are seeing and hearing regularly has to do with the program terms and conditions that are sometimes problematic. Generally speaking, our participation in a project is around 50%.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

That's it.

Mr. McColeman.

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

Thank you for being here.

What impacts, if any, on economic growth in your region have occurred since the decline in oil prices and commodity prices from the west, particularly oil and gas?

[Manon Brassard]

On the oil and gas issues, the Canadian issue globally, from a Quebec perspective the energy sector is one that's more electricity. Where we would want to promote innovation is in electric cars, electric transportation, and windmills. That kind of energy issue is more what we're looking at. For the manufacturing sector, cheaper access to energy costs generally reduces costs and makes products maybe more affordable. They're easier to sell, but I don't think we have the same kinds of issues other provinces might have.

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

Let me ask the question in a different way. I can recall seeing companies promoting.... And this was, no doubt, people from the oil and gas industry asking their suppliers to let different regions of the country know how their business affected other regions of the country. In the case of Quebec, it was a bus manufacturer that was making buses specifically to go to the oil sands and to the Fort McMurray infrastructure supply. My question is more about whether there are other industries that will be affected.

I would think the natural decline and lack of investment going on in the west would affect that bus manufacturer. That's the kind of correlation I was driving at.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I could give you an example. I met with Bell Helicopter three weeks ago. They said that a little over two years ago they had 2,400 people working in their plant, and now they have about 840. They attribute probably 80% of that loss in jobs to the downturn in the oil economy—no helicopters going to platforms, etc.

[Manon Brassard]

Anything that would affect the demands of what is being used in either the platform or oil sands.... That would, I suppose, be one of them. I used to work at CEDQ until six years ago, so there's a little bit of a gap in my knowledge. But we used to have tires, for instance, and that would be for that—

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

Can I just move on to another question? I only have five minutes, and obviously this has been confusing to you.

Let me move on to the question that I've asked the other regions, and it's regarding the forestry industry. You mentioned it's important to you. I think as we meet for pre-budget consultations, we're dealing with a budget that's going to be put together, and there'll be situations that could arise that would cause the forestry industry a great amount of consternation, if not severe decline, in this country.

In terms of your forecasting out for the government, if such a thing were to happen that we do not have a softwood lumber agreement and that, as a result of that, tariffs go up for the export of our products, in particular to the United States, that the agreement is with, what would you forecast happening to the forestry industry in your region?

[Manon Brassard]

Within Quebec there are regions more heavily dependent on forestry than others. More particularly to those, I think there would be issues around the workers and how to bring that manpower, personpower, to work and to find them other jobs. That would be certainly an issue, a consolidation of the industry itself, and having to reconfigure itself. I think there would be a number of issues around still needing to innovate within the sector to make sure that there's greater productivity if we have to face higher tariffs. Those would certainly be issues that we'd have to look into.

In addition, finding potential markets other than the States, looking at second and third transformations of the wood and finding markets for those, and, looking for a moment outside forestry, trying to help those regions diversify their economies and not be so heavily dependent.

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

Do you submit your projections and advice to the government? If you do, are you following this issue closely as a major impact to your region?

[Manon Brassard]

We're following this very closely. There is even a forum later in October that a number of us will participate in. It's having a look at the overall industry and the panneaux—not just the wood, the markets, and product development. Yes, it is a key issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Champagne.