Finance Committee on Dec. 8th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Can I answer the question, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

No, you can't.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

It's only fair.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

The time's up. I'm sorry. It's called a rhetorical question.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

A rhetorical question? I ask factual questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

You can make a statement in the House, maybe an S. O. 31, on that tomorrow, Pierre.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

That's a great idea.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

I'll be delighted.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Ms. Dzerowicz, the last five minutes are yours, and that will round it out.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thank you so much.

I want to thank you, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, for being here today. Also, thank you to you and your tremendous team for the enormous work that you've done on the fall economic statement.

The first question I want to ask is about child care. For almost too long—as long as I can possibly remember—we have been talking about some sort of national child care, and we all know that women have been disproportionately impacted during this pandemic. Also, we know that the only way we are going to have a strong economy in Canada moving forward is if we have full participation in our economy.

Can you please explain what steps have been taken in the fall economic statement to address the national child care plan or to move us towards one?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

This is an issue very dear to my heart, and I really believe it's an issue whose time has come.

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the tabling of the report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada. That report, among other things, called on the federal government to urgently begin negotiations with the provinces and territories on building a universal national child care system. That was 50 years ago. It has remained something that Canadian women, Canadian mothers and, I would say, Canadian parents have been hoping for and pushing for over those 50 years.

I think there are two things that make now a moment when we really can have a breakthrough.

The first is the coronavirus and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The spring particularly, when so many schools and day cares were closed down, was when I think many business leaders became more aware than they had been of the necessity of child care to keep women in the workforce.

We're seeing now that women's labour force participation has really taken a hit because of this pandemic. One of the things I am so struck by right now is that it's not just the usual suspects—early learning child care advocates and feminists—who are talking about child care; it is also corporate leaders. People are talking about child care as what it is, which is a driver of economic growth.

Early learning and child care can help parents participate in the labour force, and it can also create a better labour force when those well-educated little children grow up. I think we need to see it, of course, as a feminist issue, but we also need to see it as a real growth driver. I think our country is starting to look at it that way.

The second really important thing, Julie, is that we now have the example of Quebec, so talking about early learning and child care is no longer a theoretical exercise. It's no longer like some of the debates that we have in the House of Commons or at committee where everyone has their pre-baked, entrenched, ideological positions. When it comes to early learning and child care, we can look at Quebec and say that it works.

Labour force participation in Quebec, particularly of mothers of children three and under, is off the charts. It's one of the highest in the world. This has been a major contributor to economic growth in Quebec. It's worked in Quebec. It's time for us to learn from la belle province and to find ways to make it work across the rest of the country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Ms. Dzerowicz, you'll have to split a minute and a half.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

No problem. I have a question that I know the Deputy Prime Minister can answer very quickly.

After all the questions around child care and about emergency supports, the number one question that the people of Davenport always ask is about a green recovery. They care passionately about our moving as quickly as possible on climate change.

Could you please tell us what measures have been included in the fall economic statement in our aggressive support to continue to fight against climate change?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Of course. We put in some measures on climate change in the fall economic statement as a down payment on the growth plan we were discussing earlier today. They include grants for home retrofits, grants of up to $5,000 to help people make their homes more energy-efficient. That's sort of a double win, because it will put people to work retrofitting your home and at the same time help our whole country to become more energy-efficient. Maybe it's even a triple win, because it will lower your electricity bills.

We also announced investment in the infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles across the country. Again, it's a double win there, because we'll create jobs in building that infrastructure and will make it easier for people to shift to zero-emission vehicles.

There are significant investments in nature-based solutions to climate change. Again, building those nature-based solutions is also a job creation program.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

With that, we will have to end it there. Thank you, Minister, for coming before the committee and answering our questions. I would say we had some interesting exchanges, some suggestions and certainly some food for thought going forward. We leave those ideas with you and we thank you for your presentation.

Thank you very much.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Wayne, can I just offer one final final thought?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Yes.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

It's something I meant to say, which is that we have some of Canada's hard-working public servants from the Department of Finance here with us. They have been working just like Stakhanovites to prepare the fall economic statement, and they were working really hard before that to support Canadian businesses, Canadian families and the Canadian economy through this crisis. I think this is a good opportunity. Maybe all of us will agree on one thing and only one thing—all members of this committee—that Canada is very lucky to have such fine, smart, hard-working and dedicated public servants.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you, Minister, and you'll get no disagreement on that point.

We now will turn to the department officials. I believe most of the ones you named are on our list, and we can see them on the screen. Members have the names of the department officials on their notice of meeting.

Andrew, do we turn to you? I don't believe there's an opening statement, or is there?

[Andrew Marsland, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance]

There's no opening statement, but we'd be happy to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I've known you too long, Mr. Marsland. I probably shouldn't be calling you Andrew.

We will go to the first round of questions in the six-minute round. Mr. Kelly and Ms. Jansen will be splitting that round, followed by Mr. Fraser and Ms. Koutrakis on a split.

Mr. Kelly, I believe it's you.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like officials to comment on what an interest rate increase of one percentage point would do to Canada's finances and how it would affect its ability to service debt.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Who wants to take that? This is one of the difficulties with operating virtually. Whoever's answering that question will just have to click on and go from there.

Who's going to take that question?