Finance Committee on May 26th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Hello, colleagues. I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 40 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders.

I would like to remind participants of the following points.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mic, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking. For those on Zoom, at the bottom of your screen you can select the appropriate channel for interpretation: floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel.

I would like to remind all witnesses that committee members may ask questions in either French or English. If you will need interpretation, please take a moment now to prepare your earpiece and select the listening channel you need in order to take full advantage of the time allotted for questions and answers.

I will remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair.

Pursuant to Standing Order 83.1, the committee resumes its pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2026 budget.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses. From the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, we have Mike Mueller, president and CEO. From the Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association, we have Janice Tranberg, president and CEO, and Curtis Vander Heyden, chair of the board of directors. From the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, we have Keanin Loomis, president and CEO. From the Helium Developers Association of Canada, we have Richard Dunn, executive director.

We will now begin with Mr. Mueller for five minutes, please.

[Mike Mueller, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aerospace Industries Association of Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to appear today on behalf of Canada’s aerospace industry.

I would like to start by acknowledging budget 2025’s removal of aircraft from the job-killing luxury tax. That decision and the support of this committee are protecting Canadian aerospace jobs, strengthening domestic competitiveness and supporting the hundreds of thousands of highly skilled workers across the industry. I want to thank the Minister of Finance, all parties and this committee for supporting the removal of the tax.

As I've said before at this committee, Canada’s aerospace industry is truly a strategic national asset, with a world-class workforce and key industrial capability spanning civil aviation, defence, space and emerging technologies. Our industry contributes more than $34 billion annually to Canada’s GDP, supporting over 225,000 well-paying jobs right across the country, and we remain Canada’s leading manufacturing R and D sector.

Canadian aerospace is export-driven, innovation-intensive and deeply integrated into North American defence, security and economic systems. In today’s geopolitical environment, aerospace is not simply a top manufacturing sector; it is a strategic, sovereign capability, as outlined directly within Canada’s new defence industrial strategy. AIAC welcomes the release of the strategy, but the focus now must shift from strategy to execution, with industry engaged early and consistently as government moves forward with its implementation.

Canadian aerospace firms require clear demand signals, long-term visibility and predictable procurement timelines to invest with confidence. As Canada’s Secretary of State for Defence Procurement, Stephen Fuhr, said, “Industry doesn’t invest money on ‘maybe.’ They want more surety...and that’s what the DIS is supposed to provide—clarity on where we’re headed.” We couldn't agree more.

For government to deliver on the strategy, procurement reform must be a strategic imperative. Procurement systems must be not only fair, open and transparent, but also timely, effective and outcome-driven. Innovation mechanisms such as BOREALIS and the Defence Investment Agency have an important role to play in procurement reform, accelerating Canadian innovation and industrial scale-up. The investment agency in particular has the opportunity to create a more agile, responsive and outcome-driven approach, but the agency must be informed through early and ongoing engagement with industry to ensure alignment with industry timelines and supply chains.

We are pleased to see defence funding increase to 2% of GDP, along with the government’s commitment to 5% in the coming years. I would encourage the committee to ensure that this is a continued recommendation.

This brings me to my next point, which is that civil aviation and defence are two sides of the same coin. One cannot thrive without the other. To that end, Canada needs a complementary federal aerospace industrial strategy. A coordinated federal strategy for aerospace would help align investments, strengthen sovereign industrial capacity and grow Canadian exports across the civil, defence and space sectors.

Canada-U.S. aerospace supply chains are deeply integrated and have been built over decades through shared production systems, certification frameworks and trusted industrial partnerships. These supply chains cannot simply be restructured or replaced overnight. AIAC is strongly encouraging governments on both sides of the border to maintain zero-for-zero aerospace trade through the ongoing tariff and CUSMA discussions.

Lastly, accelerating aerospace innovation and getting products to market depend on a responsive and well-resourced regulatory environment. Transport Canada plays a critical role in certifying new technologies, maintaining safety standards and supporting Canada’s international reputation as a top-tier aviation regulator.

Canada is one of the only countries in the world capable of building an aircraft from nose to tail and certifying it domestically. That certification capability is a crown jewel of Canada’s aerospace sector, and we cannot allow it to erode. AIAC is recommending a review of Transport Canada’s aviation-related governance structures, alongside stable and predictable resourcing for civil aviation activities.

Canada’s aerospace sector remains the country’s leading manufacturing R and D industry because of its highly skilled Canadians bringing innovative ideas to life every day. The industry is ready to deliver. The opportunity is now for government and industry to move with the urgency and ambition required to strengthen Canada’s economic sovereignty and security in an increasingly competitive world.

If I could offer this to all parliamentarians, we have workers and industry in every single region of the country and would be pleased to host any of you at our facilities over the upcoming summer break.

Thank you, and I look forward to the discussion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you very much, Mr. Mueller.

We will now move to Ms. Tranberg from the Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association.

[Janice Tranberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association]

Thank you.

The Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association is pleased to share our priorities for the 2026 federal budget.

Alberta Cattle Feeders' is the voice of Alberta cattle feeders—the beef farmers who bring calves into their farms and modify their diets from grass to high-energy feed to propel weight gain, thus using less land, less water and producing less methane over a shorter lifespan.

Feedlots vary in size, but they remain family operations. They provide significant economic benefits to rural communities, while making large-scale contributions to food security at home and around the globe. In Alberta alone, the economic output from cattle feeding is over $2.9 billion, and we employ over 20,000 people.

Over 70% of Canada's fed cattle production takes place in Alberta, and, in fact, 25% of Canada's production takes place in a 50-kilometre radius in southern Alberta.

With this context, I'm going to turn now to Curtis, who will outline three recommendations for the 2026 federal budget that can help Canadian farmers respond to evolving and difficult global realities.

[Curtis Vander Heyden, Chair, Board of Directors, Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association]

Thanks, Janice.

I'm Curtis Vander Heyden, chair of the Alberta Cattle Feeders' board. I'm a third-generation farmer in southern Alberta, along with two brothers and one sister. We have a one-time standing livestock capacity of 40,000 animals.

Our first budget recommendation is to continue to protect an unimpeded and tariff-free border between Canada and the U.S. The Canada and U.S. beef industries operate within a deeply integrated market, with cattle often crossing the border more than once in their lifetime. As an example, they can be born in the U.S., be transported and fed in Canada, and then be retransported and processed in the U.S. The limits to transporting live animals over long distances have fostered this integrated market.

Canada exports seven billion dollars' worth of live cattle and beef annually. Of that, $6 billion is direct trade with the U.S. While we support efforts to diversify trading markets, we must continue to work towards a positive outcome for the North American beef sector, including building long-term strategies for supply chain reliability. This includes addressing infrastructure gaps, border crossing challenges and regulatory transportation barriers. To be reliable suppliers to national and global clients, agriculture producers need reliable and trusted supply changes.

Our second recommendation is to modernize agricultural business risk management tools, or BRMs, to reflect current and future realities of risk, risk thresholds, inflation, farm structure and global competition. Specifically, the AgriStability program serves as one of the only support tools for cattle feeders during unforeseen adversities. However, there has been no permanent adjustment to the payments cap within the program in the last 20 years despite profound increases in input costs and risk. The NCFA recommends that the AgriStability cap be increased to $15 million, with the consideration to review the cap every five years.

Our third recommendation is to permanently and profoundly change the approach to labour shortages in agriculture. With the majority of Canadians unwilling to work in rural locations, foreign workers are a necessity to maintain and grow the beef sector. The majority of the foreign workers hired by cattle feeders are for year-round, long-term jobs. They're not seasonal. The foreign worker programs are fraught with delays and red tape, stunting the growth of Canada's beef sector.

Further to this, once good employees are in Canada, it's nearly impossible to transition them to becoming permanent residents. Residents who bring their families reinvigorate our rural communities. We strongly encourage the government to permanently reinstate the agri-food immigration pilot and to build a foreign worker program specific to accessing foreign employees to fill permanent, year-round agricultural jobs and become permanent residents themselves.

We must also invest in upgrading the skills of the existing workforce as technology rapidly advances, including AI, and the skill set required in agriculture shifts dramatically.

Thank you for your attention today. I look forward to a great discussion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you so much, Mr. Vander Heyden and Ms. Tranberg.

We'll now continue with Mr. Loomis from the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction for five minutes.

[Keanin Loomis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Institute of Steel Construction]

Thank you, Madam Chair and the committee, for inviting me to present on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, and thank you for letting me do so from a Vancouver hotel room.

CISC is Canada's voice for the steel construction industry, representing the steel manufacturers, fabricators, suppliers, constructors, engineers and architects who are building Canada's infrastructure with steel. The steel construction sector directly employs 30,000 workers from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island and supports 100,000 jobs in total.

One year into a trade dispute with the United States, the domestic steel construction industry faces continued disruptions that put many high-skill jobs at risk. Recent 2026 changes to U.S. tariff policy further jeopardize the domestic market, with surtaxes now applying even on Canadian fabricated goods made with U.S. melted and poured steel. This represents a major escalation, and coordinated federal budget measures are required to stabilize market conditions, counter trade barriers and protect workers.

CISC recognizes and appreciates the federal government's efforts to support the industry, including trade measures, the buy Canadian policy and the steel trade monitoring task force.

Today and in our formal budget 2026 submission, we recommend a few key steps to strengthen Canada's response to the U.S. trade war and protect domestic jobs in the steel sector.

Our recommendations are to double the steel derivatives import surtax to 50%; optimize the buy Canadian policy by expanding its application to all federally funded projects; expedite the implementation of the budget 2025 commitment to reduce freight rates by 50% to transport steel across Canada, and expand this policy to include marine transportation; and strengthen the enforcement and monitoring of steel trade measures by continuing its work with industry through the steel trade monitoring task force and expand Canada's trade remedy and anti-circumvention tools.

My remarks will focus on our first two recommendations.

In late 2025, the federal government introduced the 25% steel derivative goods surtax order. While the measure was welcomed by industry, trade data and market trends demonstrate that it has not been sufficient to curb the flow of unfairly priced steel products from non-market economies such as China. Statistics Canada trade data show only a marginal decline in imports of key steel construction derivatives from China between Q1 2025, which was prior to the implementation of the derivative surtax, and Q1 2026, which followed implementation.

Canadian steel fabricators continue to face significant pricing pressures when competing against imports from non-market jurisdictions. For example, a British Columbia fabricator manufactures a standard steel bolt at a cost of $26.90, while a comparable offshore, non-market product imported from China lands in Canada at approximately $18.90, even after the application of the 25% surtax. Similar pricing disparities exist across a wide range of steel derivative products used in construction, with some imported products entering the Canadian market at prices as low as half the cost of domestically produced steel products.

CISC recommends that the government increase the steel derivatives surtax to 50% to better address unfairly priced imports from non-market economies and strengthen the competitiveness of Canada's domestic steel fabrication sector. This measure will also support us in our long-term relationship building with the United States, which wants to ensure that Canada is not a back door for dumped steel entering the North American market.

For recommendation two, our best growth market is our own. CISC applauds efforts to support manufacturers through the buy Canadian policy. It is estimated that if the U.S. export market were entirely lost, our industry could lose 3,500 to 5,200 jobs, including upstream and downstream employment effects. The potential job gains from replacing imports with domestic production would range from 10,700 to 16,700 jobs.

The buy Canadian policy announced in December was a positive first step that recognized the importance of using public procurement to support Canada's steel construction sector and strengthen domestic supply chains. By prioritizing Canadian steel in federal construction, the policy signalled that taxpayer-funded projects should deliver the majority of their economic benefits here at home, supporting local jobs, production capacity and regional industries.

While CISC is very supportive of buy Canadian, the policy is not yet optimized to deliver maximum benefits back to Canadian communities. Gaps remain around how broadly this policy applies, how consistently it is implemented and how compliance can be assessed by industry and the public. Without clear application, stronger transparency and better coordination across jurisdictions, the policy risks falling short of its intent and limiting the benefits that federal infrastructure spending could generate for Canadian steel producers and fabricators.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Mr. Loomis, would you wrap up quickly, please?

[Keanin Loomis]

We would appreciate you looking at these recommendations for the 2026 federal budget.

Thank you to the committee for inviting me to appear on behalf of CISC.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Loomis.

We will now continue with Mr. Dunn from the Helium Developers Association of Canada.

[Richard Dunn, Executive Director, Helium Developers Association of Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to address you today.

Over the past few months, Canadian decision-makers have increasingly recognized the strategic importance of helium to the Canadian and global economies, and the significant potential of Canada's world-class helium resource. As well, consumers in the health care, high tech, research and defence industries are increasingly facing higher prices and uncertain supply now and into the future.

The worsening global helium supply crisis, resulting from the prolonged and growing Iranian war, and the vulnerability that it exposed within Canada's domestic helium supply chain underscore the urgent need for governments to fully recognize the seriousness of the situation and implement the straightforward tax measures needed to strengthen Canada's struggling helium sector.

Providing helium with the standard tax treatment and access to core incentive programs that Canada provides to all other critical minerals will allow the sector to compete and attract the private investment needed for growth. In doing so, it will lay the groundwork for a secure domestic supply chain and position Canada as a reliable helium supplier to our allies, such as Japan and Korea, which are also facing the same helium supply shocks.

Helium is an irreplaceable and essential input into the modern digital economy. Helium advances defence technologies, including in aerospace; powers MRI systems; enables semiconductor manufacturing; supports nuclear energy; and is essential for critical research.

Right now, the global helium supply chain is broken, leaving Canada and our allies exposed. On March 18, an attack on Qatar's Ras Laffan industrial complex caused extensive damage to one of the world's most important helium hubs. Qatari helium production—fully one-third of global supply—is now off-line and is expected to remain significantly constrained for years.

Russia has implemented export controls, while the United States—the remaining major global producer—has limited spare capacity and is expected to prioritize its own domestic needs.

The current situation is not an isolated event. This marks the fifth helium supply shock in the past two decades, reflecting a heavily concentrated global supply chain subject to geopolitical disruption.

Despite having the world's fifth-largest helium resource, Canada has no meaningful domestic helium supply chain. The limited helium volumes we produce are shipped to the United States for processing, as we have no liquefaction capacity of our own. The reality is that we are entirely dependent on others for a strategic critical mineral resource we have in abundance. Surely, counting on Russia, Qatar and the U.S. as suppliers makes no sense.

Given this dependence and the resulting risk to domestic helium supply availability and affordability, Canadian end-users are raising their concerns. The Canadian helium users group is calling for the establishment of a “sustainable, stable, and secure helium...supply in Canada”, while the Canadian Association of Radiologists has called for Canada “to invest in a sustainable national helium supply chain.”

In the first half of this decade, led by strong Saskatchewan policies targeting production of 10% of world supply, along with significant industry investment, Canada saw helium production grow, increasing from essentially 0% to 3% of world supply. However, in 2025, Canadian helium production experienced its first decline, a direct result of the challenging tax treatment the sector faces, constraining its ability to attract private capital.

The Income Tax Act does not qualify helium as a mineral resource, the result being that helium is the only critical mineral that is not able to access the core economic tools that Canada provides to incent critical development. Those tools include competitive depreciation, flow-through shares and exploration tax credits.

The straightforward solution, supported by the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and consistent with the precedent that budget 2023 provided for lithium from brines, is to designate helium as a mineral resource and qualify it for the critical mineral exploration tax credit. These actions will catalyze the private investment that the helium sector needs to return to growth, and from there establish the conditions required to advance the construction of Canada's first helium liquefaction facility—a key element of a secure domestic helium supply chain.

In closing, the current global helium supply crisis has exposed the vulnerability of Canada's domestic helium supply chain, underscoring the need for government to move decisively and expedite the straightforward tax measures that will enable our helium sector to attract the private investment so desperately needed. As energy and natural resources minister Tim Hodgson recently put it, “Ultimately, access to your own critical minerals...is sovereignty”. I hope helium proves that to be the case in 2026.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you very much, Mr. Dunn.

We will begin this round of questioning with Mr. Bonk from the Conservatives.

You have six minutes.

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you.

My questions will be directed toward the Cattle Feeders' Association.

Ms. Tranberg, we know that the North American cattle herd is probably the lowest it's been since the fifties. Those are the numbers we're hearing. As Mr. Vander Heyden said, it's a completely integrated market between Canada and the U.S. One of the concerns we have as cattle producers in Canada is the upcoming talks with Mercosur on the free trade deal. Can you give us a perspective on how damaging and devastating that would be to the Canadian cattle industry?

[Janice Tranberg]

Sure. I'll start, and then I'll pass it over to Curtis.

One statistic that I talk about is that in this one area of Alberta around Picture Butte, an area with about a 50-kilometre radius, 25% of Canada's cattle reside. Should we be hit with a disease, that would completely wipe out and decimate our entire industry.

In Brazil and other South American countries, the CFIA has not done an inspection in over a decade. We are very concerned. What are their controls around the health and safety of animals? We know they recently had a BSE case. That's a very significant concern for us should these animals and this beef be allowed into Canada.

That's one part of our concern. The other part is really around pricing. They can very much undercut Canadian cattle producers. If we want to build the herd, we need prices that support that.

Curtis, I'll turn that part over to you.

[Curtis Vander Heyden]

That's perfect, Janice. You hit the nail on the head there perfectly.

This Mercosur deal gives a completely wrong market signal to everybody currently in the industry—to my generation and the new generations coming up. For reference, I'm only 40 years old. I've been in this business my whole life. I started actively working at 15 years old. For every decision I make today, it takes between one and two years to get any fruits from that labour.

There are risks along the road, with everything from labour shortages, which we spoke of, to diseases, which Janice mentioned. If we're going to start bringing low-priced beef into the country, what is giving me a market signal that I should risk more assets and capital to produce a very low-margin product with very high risk on a trade agreement that could very negatively affect my business going forward?

What does long-term food security mean? If we're not producing beef and we're not putting the dollars back in the pockets of the ranchers and finishers through the whole value chain because we're competing against a very low-cost product, Canada will no longer be a producer of world-class beef. That's not something that will come back overnight.

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I have a couple of points on that. We know that in Canada, if there's a case of BSE, for example, it's reported within days. We've heard reports of BSE in Brazil taking over a year to be reported. That means potentially infected meat in the food chain. We have no control over what happens there.

Another thing we heard a lot about in January, when it blew up, was the traceability requirements that were being foisted upon Canadian cattle producers by the CFIA, or the CCIA. There was a huge push-back on that. We're concerned, as cattle producers in Canada. If we have to abide by all these stringent regulations, why would we have a free trade agreement with countries that don't have to follow any of these regulations?

Maybe you could just speak a bit further on that.

[Janice Tranberg]

Once again, I can start and then pass it over.

As cattle feeders, we have been following the rules around traceability. Every animal that comes onto our farm gets run through a chute. There is more data on each individual cow than there is in human health. We can tell you exactly what it has been given and what the cut-off periods are. The traceability is precise on the cattle feeding side. We're very much in support of having traceability rules.

To your point, yes, the fear is that we're going to allow beef to come in that doesn't have the same set of rules we have.

I don't know, Curtis. You probably—

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I'll just jump in there, because we don't have too much time left.

In the beef industry, we have $6 billion in trade back and forth with the United States. I know they have expressed concern that if the Mercosur deal were to happen, it would be a back door for cheap beef to go from that region into the U.S. They're very concerned about that.

What is the position of the Cattle Feeders' Association?

[Janice Tranberg]

We've been told by the industry that they're monitoring more beef coming in through Brazil. There is a concern about CUSMA, the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal, that should more beef start coming in through Canada and they see it coming into the U.S., that would definitely cause a red flag. That's also a big concern for us.

[Steven Bonk, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I think I have time for one more quick question.

Mr. Vander Heyden, you mentioned increasing the cap to $15 million. If we do some quick math, with $3,500 a calf going into your feedlot and you having a 40,000-head capacity, $15 million is not exorbitant by any means. Could you speak a bit further to that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Do it in five seconds or less.

[Curtis Vander Heyden]

Fifteen million dollars is about half of what today's inflation costs would cover.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bonk.

We are going to continue now with Dr. Martin for six minutes.

[Danielle Martin, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Thanks very much.

Thank you, witnesses, for joining us.

My questions are primarily for Mr. Mueller and are related to research and innovation.

I know that in your prior pre-budget submissions, there was a big emphasis on what we call SR and ED—where I come from—and support for research and innovation in science. I'm curious to know if you could give us a bit of an update on the status of support for research and innovation in aerospace in Canada and what more you think needs to be done there.

[Mike Mueller]

Thank you very much for the question.

As I said in my opening remarks, innovation is absolutely critical to the aerospace sector. What we're developing now will be coming to market with a very long lead time, and innovation is absolutely critical. I'm very proud of the industry—it's the number one innovative industry in manufacturing in the country—just because that drives it.

You're absolutely right. The support from government through programs like SR and ED absolutely supports the industry. We're very appreciative of the government's maintaining of that program.

We're very encouraged by the defence industrial strategy. We have BOREALIS, which is now in place and is bringing together all these different programs, such as the strategic innovation fund, SIF. We saw a pretty major announcement under the defence industrial strategy for the NRC, with, I believe, approximately $900 million for drone technology. These are all very important pieces.

The one recommendation I have is that through some of the programs, such as SIF, we need to simplify the processes and make them more timely for industry. It's the age-old question of how to have government work at the speed of industry. It's very tough to do, but we need to take a look at some of these pieces, much like the procurement processes we have right now.