Finance Committee on June 1st, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Good afternoon, colleagues. I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 42 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

In today's meeting, pursuant to the order of reference of Tuesday, May 26, 2026, and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, May 7, 2026, the committee is commencing consideration of Bill C-30, an act to implement certain provisions of the spring economic update tabled in Parliament on April 28, 2026.

I would like to welcome our many witnesses. I won't go through and list all of them because there are many from different departments. I invite committee members to look at the list of witnesses that we have from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Department of Employment and Social Development, the Department of Finance, the Department of Health and the Department of Transport.

Given that we have many officials joining us, there won't be any opening statements. We'll go straight into questions from members.

If you have a question to address to a specific witness, we would ask that the witness comes up and that everyone is prepared to come up quickly to answer questions. For witnesses, I would ask that you state your name and your position, for the purposes of the interpreters, before you answer the question.

Without further ado, we will commence with Mr. Hallan, who I understand is sharing his time with Mr. Barlow, for six minutes.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Thanks, Chair.

I'm going to put a motion on notice, and then I'll pass the time on to Mr. Barlow.

The motion is as follows:

That, given that Canada's economy is in recession, the Standing Committee on Finance schedule a meeting with the Minister of Finance and National Revenue one time per month, as long as the Canadian economy remains in a recession.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Hallan.

Mr. Barlow, please go ahead.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

My questions will be mainly for CFIA and Health.

My first question is for CFIA. Certainly some changes in the Food and Drugs Act would allow for some decisions to be made through a food security lens. That is being proposed within the changes.

Can you point out any metrics or regulations specifically in Bill C-30 that would hold CFIA accountable to ensure that decisions are being made with that economic lens?

[Jay Holmes, Executive Director, Business Enablement and Regulatory Services, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

I'm Jay Holmes from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. I am the executive director of business enablement and regulatory services. Thank you for the question.

The amendments proposed in Bill C-30 respond to the recent parliamentary report and to stakeholder requests to broaden or to clarify the CFIA's mandate. In addition to reflecting in our decisions animal health, plant health and food safety, CFIA will also consider situations in which food security may be affected regionally or across the country and consider or formalize its consideration of economic factors when it's making decisions.

This will allow the CFIA to broaden out those considerations or formalize its consideration of those factors as it is making those decisions that keep, as a bedrock or as a foundation, the primacy of animal health, plant health and human safety.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I appreciate that, Mr. Holmes.

The reason for my question is that, when we had you at the agriculture committee a number of months ago, we asked you if there was any appetite at CFIA to change its mandate to include an economic lens. At that time you said no. You felt that CFIA was doing its job properly.

Although Bill C-30 is trying to give you consideration to make that, is there anything in Bill C-30 that holds CFIA accountable to ensure the decisions it's making use that economic lens and a lens on food security? Is it prescribed specifically that you must meet these decisions at this time?

[Jay Holmes]

The responses and the information that were provided previously at committee remain accurate in the sense that it noted that the preamble to the CFIA Act includes a mention of economic factors.

Bill C-30 will formalize that and clarify it in the text of the CFIA Act more properly to include factors such as supporting regulatory compliance, contributing to public awareness and consumer protection, and considering national and regional economic and food security factors. Those things will be formally included in the text of the bill rather than in the preamble.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Right. That's a big change, putting it in the text and not in the preamble. I think it's missing some metrics to hold the CFIA accountable and make sure that it makes decisions with that lens. I hope the minister will ensure that this happens.

Another big statement within all the testimony on the report that you are alluding to was a culture change within the CFIA. Is there anything within Bill C-30 to ensure that leadership makes that culture change within the CFIA to ensure that those decisions are made with that economic lens?

[Jay Holmes]

I'll start with the words that are in the bill, which I've mentioned, that formalize the factors we'll consider. Beyond that, and going beyond the words in the bill, I can tell you that today, the CFIA has already created the directorate that I'm a part of, called business enablement and regulatory services. It has three areas of focus that will put it into practice at the CFIA, which may get at the culture change that you allude to.

Number one is that this directorate is taking a very close and formalized look, when we're making regulatory changes, at whether we are considering all appropriate factors, such as economic factors. This directorate is also the focus at the CFIA of our work to formalize and to continue to look at red tape—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I'm sorry, Mr. Holmes.

Basically, the directorate is going to be established to try to enforce that culture change within the CFIA. I hope that more bureaucracy doesn't lead to a loss of focus.

Health Canada, I have a couple of questions for you as well.

In Bill C-30, you are also talking about making decisions through an economic and food security lens. Does Bill C-30 include any provisions on the harmonization of regulations with trusted jurisdictions?

[Shannon Laforce, Director General, Department of Health]

It doesn't explicitly include provisional changes related to foreign decisions in international jurisdictions. However, the pesticides program currently works very closely with other international partners on joint reviews.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

There's nothing in there that....

The PMRA's decision-making is falling further and further behind in terms of the timeline. Companies do not want to come to Canada, because of the regulatory red tape they have to go through.

Is there anything within Bill C-30, including any regulations, that will expedite access for Canadian producers of vital crop protection products, veterinary medicine, fertilizer or seed varieties that are already approved in trusted jurisdictions?

[Shannon Laforce]

In Bill C-30, the explicit focus is on the inclusion of economic and food security in our mandate. That said, on pesticides, Health Canada has a number of changes that we are undertaking as part of the red tape reduction, and they focus on improving performance and making sure that we're bringing in and supporting innovation in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Ms. Laforce.

Thank you, Mr. Barlow. That concludes your time.

We're going to continue now with Mr. Leitão for six minutes, please.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you very much.

I would like to address the Department of Finance officials specifically about the economic update and the increase in revenue that has been observed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Could anyone from the Department of Finance come to the table?

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you very much, gentlemen.

The economic update showed that the reported deficit was lower than what had been projected in the November budget. One reason for this decline in the deficit was that government revenues were higher than expected.

Could you tell us where that comes from, basically?

[Gervais Coulombe, Director General, Legislation, Sales Tax Division, Department of Finance]

Madam Chair, I thank the member for his question.

We are here primarily to answer questions about Bill C‑30. I'm not sure if we have any officials on the witness panel who were involved in drafting schedule 1 and the tax framework.

My colleague tells me that we do not. Unfortunately, since this is not a question directly related to the content of Bill C‑30, we'll have to provide you with a written response.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

The increase is mainly due to higher income tax revenues. If income tax revenues were higher than expected, it was because the economy was growing at a faster pace than anticipated. So, economically speaking, 2025 was still a reasonably good year.

Let's get back to the matter at hand. I'd like us to talk a bit about the Investment Canada Act and the changes we're going to make regarding the takeover of Canadian companies and the establishment of Canadian companies by non-Canadians.

We're going to amend the Bank Act, and we're going to ensure that foreign banks will have to do things differently.

Could you please explain to us briefly, but clearly, what these changes are?

[Justin Brown, Senior Director, Financial Sector Integrity and National Security, Department of Finance]

Section 1 of part 3 would amend the Bank Act to ensure that investments in non-financial activities made by foreign banks and their affiliates are subject to a national security review under the Investment Canada Act or federal laws governing financial institutions, thereby avoiding any potential gaps or overlaps.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Would this apply only to lending activities, meaning loans, or would it also apply to direct investment by foreign banks?

[Justin Brown]

Yes, it would apply to any investment in non-financial activities, in particular. The goal is to ensure that investments are subject to review, either under the Investment Canada Act or under one of the financial institutions acts, such as the Bank Act.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Okay, thank you.

So this is something that didn't exist until now, for example, when foreign banks financed the purchase of a Canadian company.

In the case of a change in ownership, we could determine whether it was in the national interest or not. The bank's activities themselves were not supervised. They weren't scrutinized. Now, we're adding that to the tool kit we have.

Isn't that right?

[Justin Brown]

There are currently national security reviews in place, for example, under the Bank Act or the Investment Canada Act. The problem that had been identified is that there are gaps in some cases. For example, certain investments might not be subject to one act or the other. In a few specific cases, the investment could be subject to two separate reviews.

The amendments to the bill therefore aim to provide greater clarity. We want to be very clear regarding an investment subject to review, either under the Investment Canada Act or under the Bank Act. It can't be subject to both acts. It must be subject to one or the other.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Okay, thank you very much.

I also want to talk about the changes to the Bank of Canada Act. I don't know if I should ask you my question.