Evidence of meeting #2 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was billion.
A video is available from Parliament.
Chief Risk & Strategy Officer, Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
It really focuses on the start.
I would say, everything in pillar one would be a really important signal, especially the sustainable finance action council, because that could help you prioritize as you go.
Pillar two, which involves relatively small dollars, really lays the foundation to those things.
Chief Risk & Strategy Officer, Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
I would say in pillar three there are very select things that you can start doing that won't have a huge budgetary ask.
Chief Risk & Strategy Officer, Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
The Canadian Infrastructure Bank mandate and approach would help with looking at how to do green mortgages or creating a green bank to help the private sector. I think that is the key. Today, you fund a lot of things as a government yourself. What you really need to do to fund all the things that need to get done is really attract the private sector.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you all.
We'll split the remaining time between Mr. Morantz and Mr. Fraser.
Go ahead, Marty.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Mr. Brunnen, I wonder if you happen to know—and if you don't, that's okay—what percentage of Canada's total GDP is the oil and gas industry.
Vice-President, Oil Sands, Fiscal and Economic Policy, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
I do know that. I'm just digging it up right now.
Our real GDP impact in 2018 was $1.9 billion. Our upstream GDP share was 5.6% of Canada's total GDP.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Almost 6% of Canada's GDP.
Vice-President, Oil Sands, Fiscal and Economic Policy, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Yes.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
That's just over one-twentieth, essentially.
Vice-President, Oil Sands, Fiscal and Economic Policy, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Yes.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
That's a substantial portion of Canada's economy.
Vice-President, Oil Sands, Fiscal and Economic Policy, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
And that's the direct component, right? There are also indirect and induced contributions as well. From a federal perspective, our estimate is that there are probably 450,000 jobs related to our industry on a national basis. Certainly, the bulk of that is in Alberta, but we do have national implications, and it's certainly a big portion of the federal GDP.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Mr. Cross, earlier tonight we had some officials from the Department of Finance in. One of them said that compared with during the great recession, if we were to have another recession, Canada would have far less monetary policy room to deal with that. I'm wondering if you agree with that sentiment. I have a feeling you probably do, but could you comment on what factors and variables might be related to that concept.
Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute
I agree wholeheartedly, and I underscore the point that it's not just monetary policy that we're starting to run out of bullets with; it's also fiscal policy, because of the accumulated debt.
At some point, you can't just look at one sector's debt-to-GDP ratio in isolation. I think that's where a lot of the debate got off the rails.
We tend to look at just the federal government or provincial governments. Nobody looks at the overall debt burden. At the end of the day, it's that overall debt burden that is being serviced by one income stream—GDP. I think that partly how we got ourselves into this mess is by focusing on individual sectors and not the big picture of all of this.
Liberal
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
We have just a few minutes, so like my colleagues, I'll ask you to be quick if you can.
Mr. Stewart, I'll start with you.
The statistics you shared earlier about the cost of insured losses as a result of severe weather events is staggering. Can you just remind me what the insured losses in Canada were at the earliest date you have figures for?
Vice-President, Federal Affairs, Insurance Bureau of Canada
The earliest date we have figures for is around 1990. There was an average of $100 million a year in that decade, which rose to $400 million in the 2000s, and it's been over $1 billion each and every year except for one.
February 3rd, 2020 / 6:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Federal Affairs, Insurance Bureau of Canada
Yes, it was slightly above $2 billion in 2018.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Do you have projections for where that cost will be in the near or medium term? What are we looking at? How bad is it going to get?
Vice-President, Federal Affairs, Insurance Bureau of Canada
We just know that it's escalating, getting worse and worse. It's difficult to know because what we're seeing is so dynamic.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
And the members of insurance plans are paying for these losses, presumably out of their own pockets.
