Government Operations Committee on May 4th, 2020

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay, this is a bit of a strange one. I picked up on this under part 8 of Bill C-13. The Minister of Finance is basically allowed to establish a corporation or entity for the purposes of promoting stability in the financial system.

What is the purpose of the authority to establish a corporation or entity to promote stability in the financial system?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Unfortunately, while it's an excellent question, I'm going to have to ask that the response be given in written form through our clerk to our committee members because we're completely out of time.

We'll be going now into the second round of questions for the second hour, starting again with Mr. McCauley for six minutes, please.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks, Chair.

Ms. Anderson, I want to follow up on the question that Ms. Ratansi had about the CEBA, and we heard the answer repeated again on other issues: “We're looking at it, we're looking at it, we're aware of it”. Will we actually have a response to these issues? When will we actually see something, a change around the issues that Ms. Ratansi brought up, regarding the CEBA for those who have been blocked from receiving support? I'm not saying to you specifically, but we have to do more than just say, “We're looking at it, we're aware of that.”

When will we actually see a response?

[Leah Anderson]

I can assure you that it's very much front of mind of the government in terms of responding to this question, and we're working on it as we speak.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay, but you just repeated what I was asking about. When will we have a response? It's not enough to tell Canadians that “We're looking at it”, hand over heart. When will we actually see a response to this, or will there not be a response to it and we can move on to something else?

[Leah Anderson]

I will just reiterate that it is a very important question that we are examining.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

All right, thanks.

For Finance, the Bank of Canada and the PBO both published updated economic forecasts. PBO has published its fiscal forecast. When will we see Finance releasing theirs?

[Alison McDermott]

We are definitely starting the process of looking at all of the scenarios for the economy. I think we would note that even the Bank of Canada, in its last monetary policy outlook, did not come up with kind of a point estimate, and that's usually what we use for the purpose of fiscal forecasting. A lot of private sector actors are out there with certain numbers for, you know, Q2 and expecting some—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'd like an answer to the question. When will Finance be publishing something for that?

[Alison McDermott]

We're not able to give you a definitive time frame at this point, but we're definitely looking at scenarios.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thank you.

Has Finance looked at scenarios, then, for bailouts or assistance packages for specific industries such as the oil energy industry, the hospitality industry, the airline industry? Have you started putting numbers together for that? If not, have you got numbers put together on what the fallout will be if there is not assistance to those industries?

[Evelyn Dancey]

I'll pick up from Alison.

Broad-based economic supports have been rolled out by the government that are relevant to the vast proportion of Canadian businesses, so the first effort was those responses of general applicability across government in lead portfolios for the last seven or eight weeks now, in terms of the crisis. There has been quite detailed work, engagement, outreach with stakeholders, by the lead portfolios and ministers, and there's quite a fair bit of sectoral intelligence-gathering and understanding around restart. There has been an ongoing surveillance of gaps in the programs on general applicability as well, and any of the iterative improvements to those programs have reflected that intelligence.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

You're using up my time.

I'm looking specifically for an answer. Has Finance put together scenarios, considerations specifically for the airline industry, the hospitality industry, the energy industry, to put together specific support packages for them? If not, have they looked at the scenario of what will happen to those industries and the economy if support is not provided and they implode?

[Evelyn Dancey]

I suppose that in terms of what I was trying to convey, though perhaps not succinctly, was that programs of general applicability are doing very much to support the sectoral challenges that are arising, such as labour bills, for example, and just general liquidity. I was going to offer—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] liquidity is the issue. None of these programs are addressing that. My question again goes back to that. Is Finance looking at scenarios for such support?

[Evelyn Dancey]

About two weeks ago, the government did announce a package of small business and sectoral assistance measures, which included a few targeted measures for the energy sector. You might be familiar with those already.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Yes.

[Evelyn Dancey]

Very briefly, they included $1.72 billion in support—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm going to move on, please.

Has Finance done any forecasting models with new revenue sources, such as higher personal, higher income or corporate taxes and changes to the GST?

[Alison McDermott]

I'm sorry. Are you asking if we're contemplating increases in these taxes at this point?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Have you done forecasting models?

[Alison McDermott]

Well, generally over the year we do this kind of analysis, but nothing of late. Nothing of that nature is being contemplated.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

We'll now go to Mr. Drouin, please, for six minutes.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank all the witnesses present for our virtual committee meeting.

My first question is for the witnesses from the Treasury Board and the Department of Finance. As you know, when a government program is announced, there is usually a long consultation process. In this case, we didn't have an opportunity for that consultation. So I'd like to know how you reorganized your organization and how you worked with other departments to deliver the benefits.

We recognize that the benefits aren't perfect, which is why the consultation is important. I know that opposition members and other stakeholders across Canada have said that self-employed workers and people who collect a non-eligible dividend, for example, have been forgotten.

Can you tell me a little bit about how you proceeded?