Evidence of meeting #89 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was beer.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON
Thank you very much.
Mr. Gray, I have a bit of time here, so I'll go back to you quickly.
One of the other items you pointed out on the laundry list of challenges your members are facing was our cumbersome Income Tax Act. Maybe I'll give you the floor for whatever time I have left—
Liberal
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON
Talk about the 10,000 pages in the Income Tax Act in three seconds.
Senior Director, Fiscal and Financial Services Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Governments have promised tax reform since 1967, and that was the last time it happened, so let's get to it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lawrence.
Now we go over to Mr. Baker, please.
Mr. Baker, you will be our final questioner today.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
That's great. Thank you very much.
Thanks to all the witnesses again for being here today. I'd like to go back to Ms. Grynol.
We had the chance to ask you a few questions the last time you were here at committee, a number of months ago.
During your testimony, you made several recommendations. One of them was around the labour shortage. I think you talked about a program that was successful in employing some of the refugees who have come to Canada from Syria, and how it could help the Ukrainians. Could you expand on that?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Hotel Association of Canada
I would be delighted to expand on that.
A few years ago, we worked with the government and the minister of immigration at the time to create what's called a bridge program. Effectively what this does is it supports new Canadians who arrive and can have a somewhat random experience in terms of where they end up working, whether they end up working and how quickly that process happens. This program was hugely successful, by the government's own report.
What it does is it supports people who come in. It brings the employer to the table with various job opportunities. It enhances training. It had an incredible success rate. The infrastructure is there. There was not a significant cost to it.
Our immediate recommendation is that the government reinvest in that program. It's called Destination Canada. It would allow us to mobilize and be purposeful about where some of these new Canadians are ending up working, especially as we are staring down the barrel of a high-demand season and an opportunity we don't want to leave on the table.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
How would that work? For the folks at home who are watching, how would that program work in today's context?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Hotel Association of Canada
We work with a partner, Tourism HR Canada, and we already have all the infrastructure set up. We have relationships with all the settlement agencies. There's an intake process. When new Canadians arrive, we would do an assessment of their skills and we would be able to easily place them into a variety of work.
To be clear, these are not just entry-level positions. We have had a mass exodus, in case anyone hasn't noticed, so we have a range of positions available. It's about matching skill with available positions, bringing employers to the table. It's almost white-glove servicing them through that process to ensure they end up where they need to be. They have a job that makes sense. They have training. There's also training available for their families. It's really an extra care package to make sure the people coming to Canada....
Many of the Ukrainians who are here are actually unemployed at the moment and could really benefit from some increased enhancements at the settlement agency level.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
I really appreciate that. I think all the members in this room meet with and are trying to help new Canadians settle in Canada all the time. For my part, a large percentage of those folks happen to be Ukrainians who are fleeing the war. When I heard you mention that there's an opportunity, potentially, here, I got a bit excited. I'm glad you expanded upon that. It's something for us to definitely consider.
It's really important that, no matter where folks are coming from around the world.... There happen to be a lot of Ukrainians coming into to Canada right now because of the war, but no matter where people are coming from—
President and Chief Executive Officer, Hotel Association of Canada
Exactly. It doesn't discriminate. It can be anybody who comes, regardless of their skill level.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
That's right. It's that they're able to find employment.
You're basically putting your hand up and saying, “We need people.”
President and Chief Executive Officer, Hotel Association of Canada
We'll take them, and we'll support them.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
A lot of folks who are coming are qualified to work in your sector.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Hotel Association of Canada
Anyone. Even if they have no command of the English language, we can employ them.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
That's great.
Can you talk about how important the funding of $108 million in the last budget is to the regional development agencies for local tourism?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Hotel Association of Canada
We're very pleased to see that funding in there. It's $158 million in total—$108 million to the regional development agencies, which will support local regional tourism development, and $50 million to support business events.
As you may know, business events.... We were closed for a period of time in Canada. The lag time to book those big events has meant that we have some catch-up work to do. That money is incremental. It's going to support Destination Canada in attracting back those big business events.
We're thrilled. However, what we did not see in the budget, of course, were any of our major labour recommendations, which is why we're here today to talk about some refinements there, which, again, are at no cost to government. They're quite easy to make and would allow us to capitalize on all the investment opportunities we can see here in Canada.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
I know, with regard to the labour piece, that it's not necessarily requiring a significant cash outlay. With the $108 million and with some of the other asks that were made to us today, I think it's a good reminder of how challenging being minister of finance can be, isn't it?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Hotel Association of Canada
Yes, absolutely. We are grateful.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
There are so many asks before us, many with great merit. When we grant resources in one direction, those are resources we can't grant elsewhere.
Anyway, thank you for your time.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Hotel Association of Canada
Yes, it's very helpful.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, Ms. Grynol, and thank you, Mr. Baker.
We had a full house here, with great questions from the members and great answers and great testimony from the witnesses. We've heard about food, hospitality and beer—alcoholic and non-alcoholic—and the weather is pretty good outside.
We again thank our witnesses for coming before us in such short order and for being able to provide the testimony that you have for our study.
Members, we're going to adjourn at this time, and we'll be back this afternoon, after question period.
Thank you.