Evidence of meeting #18 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meetings.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, COVID-19 Supply Council
No, I can't answer that.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
The other thing I noticed is that, online, each meeting is summarized by only a paragraph.
Ms. Bull, maybe you can help me understand this. How long were these meetings?
5:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, COVID-19 Supply Council
The meetings were scheduled for an hour and a half to two hours. As Mr. McHattie said, we did have quite an extensive round table in those meetings for sharing ideas.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Do you have any idea as to why we wouldn't have a better idea of what happened in those meetings? Do you know why so much information would be kept secret from the Canadian public?
5:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, COVID-19 Supply Council
I would not be able to answer that.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
You have no insight as to information that would have been private in nature or something that would have been dangerous to make available to us as Canadians.
5:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, COVID-19 Supply Council
No.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
5:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, COVID-19 Supply Council
I was, yes.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
In your mind, could the information have been made public without any problems?
5:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, COVID-19 Supply Council
From the meetings that I was on and the information I shared, I would have no concern with it being made public.
5:50 p.m.
Vice-President, Institutional Relations Tenaris Canada, Chair of the Board of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, COVID-19 Supply Council
I concur.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Thank you, Mr. McHattie. I appreciate that.
I think that concludes my time.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you very much, Ms. Harder, I appreciate that.
We'll go now to Mr. Kusmierczyk for five minutes.
February 22nd, 2021 / 5:50 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I am connecting from the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy—the Ojibwa, the Odawa and the Potawatomi.
Thank you both for your testimony and your answers. Thank you so much for your service in being part of and advancing what is the largest peacetime mobilization of industry since the Second World War.
The supply council obviously has played an important role in terms of our procurement strategy. What role do you think the supply council could play moving forward after the pandemic? Is there a role for the supply council moving forward?
5:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, COVID-19 Supply Council
I can start with that one.
As an indigenous person running an indigenous business association, it was definitely an honour that there was a place for us to speak about the importance of indigenous business and minority-owned businesses.
As Mr. McHattie said, there were some great opportunities for us to work together with larger manufacturers, representing small business. I think that is a real opportunity for us to continue to collaborate as Canadians and to support business across.... I do think that there is an opportunity for us to continue to look at how we can move procurement in Canada forward and how we can find ways for collaboration.
5:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Institutional Relations Tenaris Canada, Chair of the Board of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, COVID-19 Supply Council
I agree.
We served at the pleasure of those who asked us. We enjoyed participating. I know many of us are also participating in different ways in other places. Having people get together to share their ideas....
There are certainly more questions now to answer for what we want the Canadian economy to look like going forward. I know the Industry Strategy Council is another place where a lot of these things were discussed. They're not necessarily related to COVID-19, but the solutions might all be very similar.
It was great to have such a diverse group of people together discussing these things. We'd always be happy to further those conversations with anybody.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I appreciate those answers very much.
I'm curious whether the collaboration and the conversation within the supply council also spilled out outside of the supply council. Did you find that taking place as well, between the members?
5:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Institutional Relations Tenaris Canada, Chair of the Board of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, COVID-19 Supply Council
Certainly. I personally didn't know Minister Anand at all before. I really appreciated the opportunity to share ideas with her. I have a very positive view of her now as a result, and of many of the other council members—some of whom I already knew and some I did not. There are good opportunities.
It's tough in a video world. It's not the same as when you can get together in person, but I hope that we're able to do this more in the future in that form or some other form.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I think that anyone who's had any kind of interaction with Minister Anand has come out with the same positive impression. We definitely have a tremendous leader there.
I know that the terms of reference for the supply council could have been changed over time, I know it was part of the mandate. Did the terms of reference evolve over the life of the supply council or did they remain the same?
5:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Institutional Relations Tenaris Canada, Chair of the Board of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, COVID-19 Supply Council
They remained the same.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Did digitalization and technology factor into the conversation of the supply council in how they could be used to improve federal procurement?
5:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Institutional Relations Tenaris Canada, Chair of the Board of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, COVID-19 Supply Council
Not only federal procurement, but also in sharing best practices and insights.
If you remember those earlier days, there were ways to connect on the ground, from the largest corporations to SMEs that were all manufacturing. Sharing information was very valuable, and the tool that was developed, the supply hub, was a digital tool that, I think, can even be expanded further.
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you, Mr. McHattie.
You have two seconds left Mr. Kusmierczyk, so I'm assuming you're going to turn that down.