Evidence of meeting #37 for Industry and Technology in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was china.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
I'm very proud of my record as foreign minister, and I'm very proud of my record as industry minister. We're in a trade war now, and we need to make sure we protect our auto workers. That's exactly what we're doing.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Minister, I asked you a simple question. Do you believe there's a forced labour practice—
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
That's why we're following the auto strategy. The support from the sector was great.
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Can you articulate it one more time? I'm very hard of understanding.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
No, I'm convinced that you're very good at understanding. You know exactly what I mean right now.
What I said is that our auto strategy follows the deal we did with China—which is also good for your riding because canola workers are finally able to get a deal.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
I understand all about canola, and I understand all about my farmers' concerns.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
They have been wanting that deal for a long time.
Our relationship with China is multi-faceted.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston testified before this committee that because they don't want anyone to know.... Canada's forced labour import ban is only as strong as our ability to verify compliance. Right after this government issued its first import permits to China, Beijing passed a national security regulation explicitly prohibiting anyone in China from disclosing information about their supply chains.
How will you be certain that we are able to determine whether or not the components in Chinese-manufactured EVs are not being sourced from factories that employ forced labour?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Scott Moe, the Conservative Premier of Saskatchewan, following the deal we made with China, said that there was finally relief for canola farmers and that it was long overdue.
We needed to make sure that we got a deal. Is it perfect? We can always work on making it better, but fundamentally, Chinese EVs are across the world now, including in our closest ally countries in Europe. They present the latest technology. They're very popular across the country.
We need to make sure that we offer Canadians choice. I know the Conservative Party is in favour of choice. We're in favour of choice. We also need to protect our auto production. That's why the conditions for Chinese automakers to come to Canada are clear.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ben Carr
Thanks very much, Mr. Falk.
Madame O'Rourke, you have five minutes, and that will end the hour.
Liberal
Dominique O'Rourke Liberal Guelph, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister Joly and Mr. Vincent, welcome, and thank you very much for being here.
I want to ask a couple of quick questions about today's announcement and then move to a broader approach on the auto strategy.
MP Borrelli said that there was a feeling around the table that the only thing that would help mould-makers or others was a trade deal. The Associated Press reported on Friday that President Trump said he's going to increase the tariffs charged on cars and trucks from the EU, despite having a trade deal with them. Does anyone have a safe trade deal? Why is Canada so insistent about getting a good deal, rather than any deal, to ultimately help our auto sector, all of our manufacturers and every Canadian business?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
We're following very closely the different deals struck by the White House, the deals with Japan and Korea, which were very much linked to the auto sector, and the deal with the EU, which was very important for the EU. At the same time, we followed what the U.S. Supreme Court said regarding the different tariffs. We know there will continue to be unpredictability.
The Prime Minister is engaged in negotiations with the U.S. We know that the auto sector is key to that deal. Meanwhile, we're trying to continue to have investments, notwithstanding the uncertainty.
When you look at the different investments that have been made since the beginning of the trade war, there has been increased production by Honda and Toyota, which is 75% of our production at this point. At the NextStar facility, there are 2,500 new jobs. A third shift was also opened at Stellantis, in Ms. Borrelli's riding. A new investment of $690 million was announced last week by GM. This is good news, notwithstanding. We're also working with Ford as it finalizes its retooling and the biggest investments in Ford's history in Canada. That's also good news.
We learn from history. When you look at what happened in the 1980s, you see that car plants were being shut down across the country. It was mainly the D3 closing, shutting down car plants in my home province and in Ontario. We brought in Japanese automakers, and we worked. The Liberal government under Pierre Elliott Trudeau did that, and eventually, it was activated and put into place by the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.
Forty years later, we're inspired by what happened. We diversify. We change our ways of doing things. We don't take anything for granted. Being able to bring new players here, not only from Europe but also from China, to work with our auto parts companies—Linamar, Magna and Martinrea—is something that we think can be inspired by what we did in the 1980s. This is the ethos of our strategy. This is what we've been able to work with.
We won't sit idle while decisions made south of the border affect our auto workers. We'll not only fight for different ways to protect their jobs, but also make sure that we're attracting new investments.
Liberal
Dominique O'Rourke Liberal Guelph, ON
Minister, I have less than a minute.
We all understand that many of these businesses are looking for tariff relief. The government, in the past year, has introduced a suite of tools for that tariff relief. I'm just wondering if you want to walk us through them from the last year. They range from the strategic response fund to regional tariffs and work sharing, should it come to that. Can you remind people of how the auto strategy consolidated that and how today's announcement adds to it to give businesses some of that certainty we're giving ourselves?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
There are a couple of things there. The entire steel sector in Canada, before the trade war, was dependent on the automakers in Detroit. They were selling steel on the other side of the border, and that is now impossible because there's basically a wall of 50% tariffs.
What we've done is work with them to develop not only a domestic market, but also different types of steel. We're working with Algoma, we're working with Dofasco and we're working with Orion in Saskatchewan. We're working on the steel front. While we're helping them through the strategic response fund, which is the $5 billion that you alluded to, we're also working with the supply chain, and that's why the regional development agencies are important.
While that is happening in the steel sector, we're working with the aluminum sector. The price of aluminum has increased since the beginning of the trade war, so the profitability of the big players is actually very high. The thing is, because of the uncertainty, they're not making the investments in their infrastructure. That's why we're providing capex money to support investments in the long run.
Those who are really affected in Canada are the smaller players that are part of the supply chain, because we don't have the transformation capacity in the aluminum sector. We don't have a rolling mill or a plant in Canada. It is a problem, and that is why we're working to support even more of the small players in supply chain management on the aluminum side.
When you look at the auto sector, it is affected, of course, and it's obviously because of the tariffs. We've made sure that through the strategic response fund of $5 billion, we're helping Honda, Toyota and Ford. Meanwhile, GM and Stellantis took decisions in Ingersoll and Brampton that were contrary to their obligations. Either they'll bring production back or we'll get our money back.