Government Operations Committee on June 11th, 2026

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Thank you.

There are a number of support programs for tariff-impacted industries, with steelmaking being, if not the most tariff-impacted, definitely one of the most. There are the strategic response fund, the strategic innovation fund, the regional tariff response initiative, the large.... There's a whole suite of supports for industries that are significantly tariff-impacted.

Mr. Young, I'm going to come to you with a question, because you mentioned building Canadian capacity into areas that are currently not available. You specifically mentioned Canadian sections and beams. I'm old enough that my steel construction handbook is from the 1990s and still has sections from Algoma Steel in it. I wanted to ask you, what opportunities are there for Canadian manufacturers and producers of steel to bring back some of that production capacity that we no longer have here?

[Stephen Young]

Thank you, Mr. Danko, for that question and comment.

I did actually listen to a session, maybe two weeks ago, when you mentioned that when you served as a consulting engineer, one of the frustrations you found was that it was price-centred, and maybe it didn't help the local economy, or the national economy, in this case.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you mentioned the Algoma old book. You may have found at times that there wasn't any creativity in how there could possibly be local supply for some jobs. I said we've already seen benefits. There are webs and flanges being produced for pre-engineered beams. In that business, we have actually seen an order now—we just completed it—that would have typically gone from the United States, but because of the buy Canada policy, it had to be melted and poured in Canada.

If we get creative with this type of engineering—there are a lot of slick coil plates and all the coil from Algoma and the other three mills in Canada—we can produce a section that can be used. Some can't be, like for bridges—you would know what the specs are—but a lot can be used for buildings, and also base plates, etc.

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

This is my last question.

Ms. Cobden, obviously we're in a trade war with the United States. There's a lot of conflict in the United States, but for the steel industry in particular there are also a lot of things we have in common with the United States steel market. The interests of Canadian and American producers are more aligned than they are different. I was wondering if you could expand on some of the common ground that we have with the North American steel producers.

[Catherine Cobden]

Thank you very much for that question. It puts me in the position of being able to explain why there's strong alignment with the U.S. industry despite the tariff war, in the sense that we are fighting the same challenge. The global challenge of overcapacity, predominantly out of China, is frankly one of the reasons the Trump administration put the tariffs in place in the first place. The Canadian domestic producers face the exact same problem.

Our hope is that through the USMCA or CUSMA discussions, we will see a return to what we have had in the past, which is standing shoulder to shoulder with the Americans to fight this global overcapacity challenge, which is destroying the domestic markets in each of our countries. That's the ultimate objective, but it's hard to predict how that will play out.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks very much.

Go ahead, Madame Gaudreau.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

First of all, I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being here. We would need more than an hour with them, obviously.

I'll start with you, Ms. Auger.

It struck me when you said that more businesses were closing than opening. What about business succession? Is it a threat, or, on the contrary, is it a lever to maintain our manufacturing and industrial capacity?

[Michelle Auger]

Thank you for the question.

It isn't necessarily just now that we're seeing this decline where businesses are shutting down. The Statistics Canada data that we used in our analysis published in April demonstrate that, aside from the pandemic, we're in one of the most difficult periods for SMEs.

Entrepreneurs who are members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, or CFIB, tell us that costs have increased in each of their sectors, particularly because of everything that's going on with the United States. They're continuing to absorb the cost increases, but there's no respite. Right now, the priority for SMEs is to ensure that the government understands that SMEs can't necessarily access the programs in place to support certain industries.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

That means there's a need for specific tools, levers and investments to manage the risk, right?

[Michelle Auger]

Exactly.

We have submitted our budget brief to the Department of Finance. In that brief, we included a series of recommendations to give SMEs some respite regarding the costs. We also included specific recommendations on the investments that we would like to see in support of SMEs. I would be happy to send those recommendations to the clerk of the committee.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Please do so.

[Michelle Auger]

Okay.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I look forward to reading that.

Mr. Prévost, I heard you talk about necessary investments. I understand that you're calling to implement a cross-cutting industrial policy.

[Francis Prévost]

The buy Canadian policy can't simply be an isolated measure. It has to be linked to support for SMEs, as well as funding [Technical difficulty—Editor] to improve productivity—

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Oh, no.

[Francis Prévost]

Can you hear me?

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

We hope that it will—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

You're loud and clear.

[Francis Prévost]

Can you hear me okay?

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Yes.

[Francis Prévost]

Perfect. I'm sorry.

I was saying that this policy has to be accompanied [Technical difficulty—Editor] innovation and improve businesses' productivity. That requires an industrial policy that targets the various sectors [Technical difficulty—Editor]—

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Mr. Chair, we seem to be suffering from interference too.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'll stop the time. Why don't you re-address the question, please?

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Yes.

We'll start over, Mr. Prévost. Let us hope it works well, since you're near the window.

Describe for me the importance of having a cross-cutting industrial policy.

[Francis Prévost]

It is indeed important to take into account the realities of each of Canada's manufacturing sectors to reduce this dependence and improve the resilience of the supply chain. This policy needs to be accompanied by support for innovation to improve productivity and innovation within manufacturing companies. It has to be accompanied by other measures, not just a review of public procurement.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Ms. Auger, do you think Canada is concerned enough about the gradual loss of all its decision-making centres and its champions? In Quebec, at least, we're trying to keep them here.

How do you see this?