Finance Committee on Nov. 14th, 2016

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I know we have quite a few studies before us. We have many irons in the fire, as they say, but that's no reason to relegate crucial issues to the back burner.

The government decided to establish the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which, strictly speaking, we are not opposed to. There can never be too much goodwill brought to bear when making the big decisions affecting Canada's economy, the decisions delivering the greatest economic benefit and stimulus. That said, this is a new component. We should not think of it as an outside body; instead, we should look at it as a new body, one worthy of sober, serious, constructive, and, above all, proper consideration by the committee.

Doing that means taking the time to carefully examine each of the recommendations made. That would help not only the committee, but also the government. With a view to identifying the best possible ways to foster growth and prosperity, the government would certainly benefit from the insight and more detailed explanations by the advisory council that such an analysis by the committee would offer.

Of course, we all have our own political visions or agendas, not to mention biases against and in favour of certain approaches. That does not mean, however, we should not do what we can to shed light on these elements, in the most meaningful, enriching, and comprehensive way possible so that we, as parliamentarians, can gain a crisper understanding of the issues we care about. The other goal would be to help the government better understand the issues brought to its attention and the decisions it will have to make.

We believe this motion should be adopted and that it does not prevent the committee from studying the bills as planned. That is the regular or traditional work of the parliamentary committee. It goes without saying. This is not at all a matter of pushing our studies of the bills aside. That is part of our job.

In a nutshell, I think this is an important analysis, one that could benefit all Canadians. We are talking about a non-partisan exercise given that the government, in creating this advisory council, sought the counsel of people who do not belong to political parties. Therefore, we believe this motion should be adopted.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Aboultaif.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this.

We know something for sure, and I believe this motion is beyond partisanship, because the aim of it is to be able to have a good understanding of economic growth. What we have seen, and without having to point any fingers toward any party, is that the indication is not there, the real measures are not there. We're going into a chaos of back-and-forth on where the numbers are, where the economic growth is, where the job growth is, and all this kind of stuff.

This is a fantastic idea. It has become very handy for the committee and for the Minister of Finance to make the best judgments on moving forward, because those measures are the real measures we can build on for the future outlook, for the budget, for spending, and for moving forward on more stable ground.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

The last word goes to you, then, Mr. Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I was hoping to get, as some of the other members mentioned, or to try to build some agreement, because this is the government, and they put together a group of individuals who wanted to contribute and have brought forward a report. We've been travelling right across the country to hear exactly what Canadians think, and their own regions think, about what they can do to grow the economy.

Before I make my final statement, perhaps members can say if there is an amendment possible to the motion. Is it a matter of timing for the motion? I'd really like to see if the committee can work this one out. I didn't mean to dominate this whole meeting, but we did schedule about an hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

It's not a problem. We have to deal with the motion.

Does anybody want to add anything else? I'm not sensing, really, where people are at.

Mr. MacKinnon.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Would you be prepared to wait until the growth committee submits its final set of recommendations?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Can you give me the timing on that?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

I don't think Mr. Barton can, so I can't.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Oh. Okay.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

I think it's been clear that he's going to try to get these things, these specific sets of recommendations, out in a punctual timeframe. I don't think any of the members of that committee believe it's an unduly long process, so I would think that by the middle of next year—but I don't know that—all of that work would be concluded. Then we could have the complete look at the Canadian economy afforded by the minister's group.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

In lieu of an actual time, then, perhaps we could just do a partial study right now on the first report, with the option to do a larger, more comprehensive one once we have the totality of the reports.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

I'd be fine with that, as long as we put this in the priority order we've adopted for other studies that this committee, the entire committee, has already agreed to undertake.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Okay. The reason I say this is that we have a few openings in the future, but that's why I purposely didn't put scheduling on this.

Maybe we could pass it to you, Mr. Chair, and the clerk, to make some suggestions on where we could fit something in.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We'll be having a meeting of the subcommittee. We have three or four other motions, so I would say the subcommittee is going to meet on those at some point to see how we can schedule things. We're completely time-limited until the Christmas break for sure, because legislation takes a priority, and pre-budget consultations have to be done by December 7. We could deal with it as a subcommittee.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Perhaps, if we can find support for this, we can just approve, yes, we're going to study it. If another report comes out, perhaps we can do another motion that will encompass both the new report and this first report as another option. Maybe we can just put this in the hopper and leave it to the steering committee to find where we're going to do this study.

Would that be reasonable?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Those are the parameters we're dealing with.

The motion reads, just so that people are clear:

That the Standing Committee on Finance undertake a comprehensive study on the “First Report by the Advisory Council on Economic Growth” and that the Committee report its findings to the House.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

It says “comprehensive” and “first report”?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

We put it in the hopper and we schedule it and if another report comes up, then we can put another motion that incorporates this motion and another one. We're masters of our own destiny, so if we decide as a committee that we'd like to change that, we can.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Would you be prepared to accept a more general approach: that the committee undertake a study on the various reports from the Advisory Council on Economic Growth and that the committee report its findings to the House?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I'm somewhat open, but I'm also a little concerned that if we're referencing things that don't yet exist, that's an issue. I didn't add a lot of meat to the bones for that purpose, to keep it general so that we could find some agreement on this.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

What about “existing and future reports”?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Would everyone else agree with that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I think they do, by the shaking of heads.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I see some nodding.