Evidence of meeting #60 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was health.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, Mr. Staples.
Members, we are moving to the Liberals' MP Dzerowicz for five-plus minutes.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Thanks so much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank everyone for your presentations. I wish I had 10 or 20 minutes. I would ask all of you great questions.
I'm going to spend around two minutes with you, Ms. Potter, and then I'm going to move to Mr. Darby. I'm hoping that in my next round I can go to a couple of other people.
It's unfortunate that Mr. Lawrence has left, because there were a couple of things I wanted to follow up on in terms of the conversation that he had begun.
Do you believe it is important for the federal government to continue to fund employment insurance, particularly since so many in the tourism industry are seasonal workers? Do you think we need to continue funding employment insurance?
5:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
Employment insurance meaning...?
5:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
EI?
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Yes. Don't seasonal workers apply for EI if they're not working?
5:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
That would depend on the workers themselves. Oftentimes they will have a secondary job that they will do in the off season. We are the number one employer of young people for seasonal positions. Those young people often leave us and go back to school, so....
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Do you think it's important for the federal government to continue to be funding EI?
5:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
I think it's important that the federal government continue to have EI as an option for those who need it.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Okay, and is it important to fund it, despite the fact that we have high inflation and that things are unpredictable right now?
5:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
Absolutely.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Okay.
Even though we have high inflation and things are unpredictable, do you think it's important for the Canadian government to continue to ensure that we continue to fund our Canada pension plan?
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
I do.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Okay. The reason I'm asking that is there are different words that are being used on the other side. They'll say, “Do you think we should be funding payroll taxes?”, and we'll say, “Do you think we should be funding EI?” I've forgotten how they referred to the CPP, but I wanted to make sure that you also believe we should be funding the CPP.
Hurricane Fiona was completely devastating to eastern Canada. All of us saw the absolutely awful impacts. These once-in-a-lifetime hurricanes or storms are happening far more often. Do you believe that our federal government should be moving urgently and aggressively to combat climate change?
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
Yes.
October 5th, 2022 / 6 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Part of our climate change plan is to price pollution as our way to decarbonize and try to move to net zero because, if we're not able to get to net zero, unfortunately our climate will continue to warm up and we will have more of this unpredictable weather. I just wanted to put that on the table, because I know that you talked about sustainability and that it is important for the industry to do that, but I also wanted to let you know that it continues to be a big priority for our government.
The next question I have is for Mr. Darby.
Mr. Darby, you said a lot of excellent things and made excellent recommendations in a very short period of time. I heard you loud and clear in terms of the national industrial strategy and the doubling of the manufacturing capacity, which was great. I also heard you refer to the Monique Leroux report.
I wonder—just for us because we want to move forward with some very specific recommendations for budget 2023—if you can follow up. If you have a few things top of mind right now, if there's one, two or three things that you would like to pull out for the committee, that would be really important. If you don't have a chance now, please feel free to follow up with us. It's important for us to have very specific recommendations. Do you have any that come to mind now?
I have one more question before my time ends.
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters
Most importantly, with the evolution since that report around the net-zero strategy of the country, it is incredibly important that we provide the incentives and support so that all manufacturers can transition their energy use in a way that is economical with some risk sharing. That really goes back to that level of investment that Madam Leroux's report talked about, the fact that we've been underinvesting relative to our peers. That would be the one thing right off the top of my head.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
You also referred several times to the Inflation Reduction Act. There are many who believe there are some key elements of the Inflation Reduction Act that we might want to replicate and come up with a Canadian version. Are there any elements that you think might be helpful for us to implement here in Canada?
6 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters
Concerning the Inflation Reduction Act, we were all very happy that Canada got included in the tent of what qualifies for subsidies in the EV world of the U.S., and that's great, but the other side of it is that the U.S. has put in a number of incentives to attract production to the U.S. It's great that Canada can participate, but hard for Canadian companies because they're competing with their American counterparts who have been heavily subsidized.
It doesn't mean we have to do exactly the same, but the idea of a refundable tax credit and partial de-risking of that investment would really make sure Canada gets more than..... We don't want to be just the people who mine minerals. We want to be the people who mine the minerals, refine them, build batteries and ultimately assemble cars. I think there's an opportunity for us to participate by providing some incentives. That would be my short answer.
6 p.m.
Liberal
6 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, MP Dzerowicz.
Members and witnesses, we are moving into our third round. This will be our final round. We are starting with the Conservatives.
MP Albas, you have five minutes, please.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just want to make sure that we're all absolutely clear. When we talk about CPP and other payroll taxes like EI, we're talking about increases that are scheduled. Maybe if MP Dzerowicz is really concerned about temporary foreign workers paying into the system.... Right now they have to pay into it, and then they go back to their original country and they can't ever claim CPP or receive those EI benefits when they've left Canada. She might want to talk to her own finance minister if she thinks that's not a good thing to do for people in those situations.
Mr. Breton, thank you so much for coming. I want to talk to you about technical requirements for electric vehicle charging stations. You talked about how other countries are able to get people and that infrastructure in.
Concerning the Electricity and Gas Inspection Act and other statutes, there are consultations that have just closed on kilowatt hour billing. Essentially they're saying that it's going to take until the end of 2023 to have a standard for level one and level two charges, and they're just starting to put out a level three charging station consultation. Right now we could be having private companies putting money into the system and not requiring governments, provincial or federal, to put in the infrastructure so that there are more electric vehicles. That's a way that we can.... Just change a technical standard. Would you agree that needs to happen faster?
6:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Mobility Canada
It does. Measurement Canada has been working at this. We were surprised to see that they were talking about level one. It's a plug on the wall.
6:05 p.m.
Conservative
6:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Mobility Canada
Yes. Basically the issue is mostly with fast chargers, so level three. Starting with level two is a good step, but we have to move faster, obviously, because right now we are seeing some disparities depending on what type of electric vehicle you have. Some charge faster than others. Some are at a disadvantage because they have an older model and they will pay more to get the same amount of electricity.