Finance Committee on Feb. 10th, 2022

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

You have just about 30 seconds or so.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

I don't have enough time left to ask another question, unfortunately, but I would simply like to mention that the transformation of transportation, especially since the advent of self‑driving systems, is very interesting. All this feeds our thinking about transportation means of the future.

Thank you very much, Mr. Breton.

[Daniel Breton]

It was my pleasure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Madame Chatel.

Now we are moving to the Bloc and Monsieur Garon for two and a half minutes.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll come back to you, Mr. Breton.

I don't want to single anyone out, but here as elsewhere, there is sometimes opposition to carbon taxation. Given the figures you mentioned, it seems that this can create unfair competition in the current market in favour of traditional vehicles, that is, those with internal combustion engines. I'm wondering if subsidy programs for the purchase of electric vehicles wouldn't bring healthy competition back into the vehicle market in 2022.

You presented an interesting document. I'd like you to comment on two things: first, the eligibility thresholds for subsidies for individuals who purchase electric vehicles; and second, the role of these programs for both commercial delivery vehicles and buses.

[Daniel Breton]

At this point, if we're going to achieve our goals, we have to provide financial incentives. I would like to remind people here that financial incentives to purchase vehicles that are less polluting began in 2006, under the Conservative government. At the time, hybrid vehicle technology was more expensive. We have reached a point where hybrid vehicles are less expensive and no longer need to be subsidized.

It also requires a regulatory framework. We support federal zero‑emission legislation to force manufacturers to provide more and more electric vehicles so that they are accessible to Canadians. Currently, the wait in most Canadian provinces is months‑long, even a year. As much as people want an electric car, it is very difficult for them to get access to one.

With regulations becoming increasingly stringent around the world, manufacturers are prioritizing sending these electric vehicles to countries such as China or several European countries. In Canada, we are left with crumbs, and that is a real problem.

Of course, we want to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, but people still need to be able to buy them at dealerships. At the moment, the majority of dealerships in Canada don't have electric vehicles on their lots. This isn't from the pandemic; it was like this before.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Breton, I only have 10 seconds left. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you. I hope the interpretation worked well and that everyone was able to hear your remarks.

[Daniel Breton]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Did everybody hear that?

I don't know where that came from. Was that from Monsieur Garon?

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

I'm done, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Okay. Thank you, Monsieur Garon. I'm sorry. I thought it was the interpreter speaking.

We're moving to the NDP. MP Blaikie, you're going to be the last questioner. You have two and a half minutes.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you very much.

In the last two and a half minutes, I want to ask Ms. Potter a question.

You mentioned in your opening remarks the concern about the revised wage subsidy program for the tourism and hospitality industry. We've heard loud and clear on this side of the Canada worker lockdown benefit about the extent to which it's really not adequate for independent travel agents. You talked about extending the window for the wage subsidy program in the tourism and hospitality industry and making some modifications.

I wanted to circle back to you to hear loud and clear what you think we need to do and what the consequences for the industry will be if no action is taken.

[Beth Potter]

The tourism and hospitality recovery program and the wage and rent subsidies that fall within that are due to be cut in half in the middle of March. That decision and those parameters were put in place before additional restrictions for omicron came to be.

We're looking for an extension of the program to ensure that businesses are able to continue to keep their staff and continue to pay their bills while they ramp up later than expected for what we hope to see being a robust session.

One of the other changes, to your point around travel agents, is that most of them are sole proprietors. Sole proprietors don't qualify for any of these subsidies and they're a unique group, because oftentimes their revenue is not earned until after the trip has been taken. As you can understand, over the last two years there have been a lot of trips booked but a lot of trips cancelled, so these travel agents have been without revenue and without the ability to tap into any of the support programs meant for the industry.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you very much for that.

That's good for me, Mr. Chair. I'm sure I don't have very much time anyway.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

No, that was excellent.

Thank you, MP Blaikie.

Listen, right now is a good opportunity for me, for all of us, to thank the witnesses.

Thanks for your testimony and your answers to the many questions from the members as you inform our pre-budget consultation and our report. On behalf of the committee, the clerk, the analysts, the interpreters and the staff, I thank you a great deal for coming before us. We really appreciate that.

Members, we are going to have a discussion on the legislation that just went through the House, which we voted on. I do see MP Beech's hand up, but I am going to allow the witnesses to log off at this time. We'll just say goodbye, and everybody can take off.

Thank you. It was great to have you here.

MP Beech.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you also for the prerogative today of allowing our witnesses to testify. I thought the testimony and the questions were very helpful.

As we know, according to the Standing Orders, when legislation is passed on to the committee, it takes precedence. In that vein, I have a motion that I would like to propose. I have passed the motion to the clerk in both official languages and asked him to distribute that. Perhaps I can read the motion and then I'd like to speak to it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, MP Beech.

Clerk, have you received the motion? Has it been distributed in both official languages?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Alexandre Roger]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

That's excellent. The members have had an opportunity to take a look at it.

The floor is yours, MP Beech.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

I'll read through it, and hopefully everybody can follow along from their P9s.

Mr. Chair, I move:That the Standing Committee on Finance commence its study of Bill C-8, the Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation Act, 2021, and that a) The committee invite officials from the Department of Finance, Employment and Social Development Canada, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada to appear on Monday, February 14th,

b) The committee invite the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance to appear,

c) Prioritized lists of witnesses be submitted to the clerk by 5:00 PM EST, Monday, February 14th

d) The committee meet the week of February 21st to hear further testimony

e) The committee commence clause-by-clause consideration of the bill no later than February 28th, 2022

f) Parties submit amendments to the bill no later than 5:00 PM EST, Friday, February 25th

g) The Committee empower the Chair to schedule additional meetings, outside of the regular schedule, for the purposes of studying the bill.

Mr. Chair, that's the gist of the motion, and perhaps I could speak to it just briefly.

I have tried at every opportunity to provide members of this committee with answers to any questions they might have on Bill C-8. As it's been developing, briefings have been provided to members of this committee as well. We all know that there are elements within this particular bill that are important for Canadians. One of the most important parts is the procurement of rapid tests as we continue to fight COVID and making those available to the provinces and territories, as well as keeping kids safe with proper ventilation, etc. One thing I will note is that I haven't put in this motion exactly how many meetings the committee would like to have for witnesses. I would be very open to hearing the preference of the committee members on that.

I would also note that this is the busiest committee in town. We currently have pre-budget consultations going on, and, as we saw today, those are very productive. I also know that the committee has a study on housing inflation and affordability that it wants to get back to. I suspect that we could probably deal with this quite quickly, but I would be open to committee members' comments on the number of meetings they would like.

That is the motion I would like to introduce.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, MP Beech.

I'll look for discussion. I see that Monsieur Ste-Marie has his hand up.

Welcome, Monsieur Ste-Marie. I know Monsieur Garon was here in your place during the committee meeting.

Mr. Clerk, if you see a hand up in the room, could you please inform me? I would appreciate that.

Mr. McLean's hand is also up. We'll go to Monsieur Ste-Marie and then Mr. McLean.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I agree with the spirit of the motion. I will obviously listen carefully to what colleagues have to say about the motion.

I think it would be important for officials to come and talk to us about Bill C-8, so we should at least schedule a meeting to that effect.

At the same time, the government has unfortunately gotten us used to having to deal with ever‑tight deadlines. There is a section in Bill C-8 that deals with seasonal unemployment. There is still some pressure to get this bill passed quickly.

I want to point out to colleagues on the committee the importance of continuing the pre‑budget consultations. I don't know if it's you, Mr. Chair, or you, Mr. Clerk, who can give us an idea of the deadline for sending in our pre‑budget expectations. Could Mr. Beech tell us what date we could send it to the government to be considered in the budget?

I think we should have a few more pre‑budget consultations. For example, to date, no one from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has appeared. I think this would be the first time we've had a pre‑budget consultations where an organization like that didn't appear.

So I'm in favour of the motion. That said, I would like to have a timeline for further pre‑budget consultations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Ste‑Marie.

I will look to the clerk and maybe to the analysts. They may have some information for us with regard to your question.

[The Clerk]

Do you want me to answer now, Mr. Chair, or do you want to go to Mr. McLean?