Finance Committee on June 11th, 2026

[Kate Higgins]

I represent an organization that is a coalition of more than 100 Canadian international development and humanitarian organizations that have millions of Canadians supporting them every day.

As I said in my testimony, Canadians gave $1.4 billion of their hard-earned money to these issues in 2023. I think that demonstrates that there is absolutely interest, pride and care there, and an appreciation, as I said, that it is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to step up and support those on the front lines of very challenging climate, conflict and humanitarian crises.

It's also strategic. As you mentioned, from a public health perspective, pandemics, security.... We are a globally integrated country, and what happens outside our borders has direct impacts and effects on us.

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

You're talking about donors, very generous people for whom it's important to give to organizations on the ground, most of which, if not all, have extraordinary missions. However, in your press release, these people reacted to the economic update, and you raised the importance of modernizing the tax rules for non-governmental organizations, such as the ones you represent. In the last minute left, could you speak to that?

[Kate Higgins]

Are you talking about the organizations I represent?

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

In response to the economic update, you talked about modernizing the tax rules for the non-governmental organizations you represent. In the remaining minute, could you please tell us about your proposals?

[Kate Higgins]

I will be very quick.

The charity and regulatory environment for Canadian organizations is very important. It's something we work on very closely with domestic charities. We are highly regulated and highly effective, and we seek to be very efficient.

In our budget brief and submission, we outline ways we can modernize and look at increasing efficiencies—not only as organizations, but also in our relationships with Global Affairs Canada—around transparency, flexibility, cutting red tape and ensuring that we are doing a better job collectively of explaining to Canadians why this is strategically important for our country.

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

We hope that your requests will be read and heard by the government.

With that, I'll turn it over to Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Garon.

Ms. Cobena, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to direct my questions to Ms. Barrett.

Thank you for your opening remarks. I could feel the pain in your opening statement.

It is no secret that the administration south of the border has been less than collaborative. To compound the issue and make it worse, we haven't yet seen a resolution, or even the urgency to come to a resolution, on the tariff dispute on this side of the border, with several deadlines that came and went over a year ago now. I can feel the pain, because I also have tool and die manufacturers in my riding that are particularly concerned about their future, the jobs they're providing their employees and the livelihoods of their families.

More broadly speaking, could you speak about how the businesses or stores you represent feel about this lack of urgency?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Colleagues, noting that the bells have begun, do we have UC to continue for another 15 minutes? They're 30-minute bells.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

That's great. We'll continue.

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

Madam Chair, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Mr. Garon, you have the floor.

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

I would be very much in favour of unanimous consent to continue the meeting. I understand that we're at the beginning of the witnesses' opening remarks. This would lead us to extend the meeting by around 15 minutes.

Would we then end the meeting without having a turn to speak?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

No.

You have just asked your question.

That means we have completed the first round of questions.

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

This is all because of the filibuster. Excuse me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Ms. Cobena, you have the floor.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Can you speak about how the businesses you represent feel about this lack of urgency toward having a resolution on this tariff issue?

[Barbara Barrett]

I would like to first point out that our stores got through a 20-month border closure during the pandemic. We can get through this decline in traffic going over the border again if we have the correct support and if we have the playing field levelled so we can compete with our only competitor, which is the United States. If we get this tax issue cleared up, which we think is a very straightforward issue, we'll be able to get through this decline in traffic over the border despite the lack of urgency to get things cleared up.

We are viable businesses. We operate in small communities across Canada that really depend on these businesses as pillars of the community. We're seeing a loss of employment as stores are closing. We had one close in New Brunswick, and four or five more are on the brink out west. We feel that urgency. Just having a level playing field with our only competitor, the United States, with this very small tax issue would really go a long way toward seeing us through this difficult time.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you for that.

We know that businesses are resilient. They adapt very quickly, most definitely quicker than the government. Of course, when the issue is prolonged, it's difficult for them to adapt or even stay open, as you mentioned, but we also see that when there's a shift in priority, it seems, for the government. As we saw, first there was a rupture with the U.S., and now Canada strong...will make America great again.

I'm sure that flip-flop also impacts businesses. They don't know the priority, so they can't plan for it. Can you speak to that?

[Barbara Barrett]

I can speak to the fact that as soon as the tariff threats occurred last year, and as soon as the 51st state rhetoric occurred, we felt the impact immediately. The longer this goes on and the longer we see that decline in traffic, the more difficult things become and the more urgent things are. Time really is of the essence for us. We see more stores on the brink of closing the longer it goes on.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I'm glad you mentioned that, because of course it's businesses that are caught in the crossfire. What does a business mean? It means jobs. It means people's livelihoods.

In your opening statement, you mentioned the structural differences between an American business and a Canadian business and how we are at a disadvantage. Could you expand on that?

[Barbara Barrett]

Absolutely. We have an excise tax put on the products in our businesses that the U.S., our only competitor, does not incur in their stores. As I said, they're often just metres down the road. Instead of that money being spent here in Canada, which is the purpose of our stores—it's the last opportunity to keep money in Canada that will otherwise be spent in the U.S.—our prices are so much higher that people aren't spending in Canada. They're just waiting and spending their money in the United States.

Not only are we not getting the tax dollars from those sales anyway; we're also not getting those sales and other sales that might come from people stopping at our stores.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

That concludes the time. Thank you very much.

Mr. Turnbull, you have five minutes.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

Thanks to all the witnesses.

Mr. Vansintjan, thank you for being here. Thank you for the work that Food Secure Canada does, by the way. I've been following the organization for years. They wrote “A People's Food Policy for Canada” years ago. They worked on getting Canada's first national food policy since World War II. They were instrumental in advocating for the local food infrastructure fund. You made a recommendation about expanding that considerably.

My colleague Ms. Martin asked some really good questions about income security being part of food security. Notwithstanding those comments—I think they were really good—your focus today was on the structural elements within the economy. I think that's really important. Essentially, I take what you've said here today to mean that we need to rebuild the regional food systems that once were thriving in Canada, the local-based food systems.

Can you speak to how those shorter supply chains add to resilience in our food system at a time when it's vulnerable to a lot of the shocks that Ms. Higgins was talking about, the shocks that are international and global in nature?