Industry Committee on May 19th, 2016

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Mr. Champagne, I'm going to take you out of the box.

Has the aftermarket auto parts manufacturer considered getting involved in innovation and design in emerging markets, where they can actually include their parts in the manufacture of other automobiles in those emerging markets, and as such, is able to open up a market aside from the Canadian market?

That's really out of the box.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

You have about 10 seconds.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Oh, don't worry.

[Jean-François Champagne]

I'll make this quick.

We try to silo the aftermarket from original manufacturer supply, when in fact many of those manufacturers that do supply the aftermarket are also directly supplying the original automaker. To answer your question, some of them, the larger manufacturers such as Bosch, are already doing something like that—not specifically for the aftermarket, but corporately those organizations are already doing things like that.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Do you think there's an opportunity—

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Mr. Masse, you have two minutes.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I'll move to defence. I wish there were more time to get other topics in here, but very quickly, with regard to the United States, they have a defence procurement strategy that's very significant and allows for preferential buying and so forth. In fact, when we buy U.S. product, they can kick us in line if they want, if they so choose.

On the Canadian side here, though, if Canada were to invest in research and development in a very assertive style, say, for example, with the companies you represent, would there be a commonality or do you think there would be an interest in doing some high-level sharing of that research and development with our colleges and universities?

[Christyn Cianfarani]

Right now, there are a number of programs that our sector takes advantage of, which are actually collaborative programs. The strategic aerospace and defence initiative, for example, mandates, or has a sort of desire that you create a plan in order to be able to engage universities and polytechnics in your actual development, so I would say the short answer is yes, absolutely. We can't do it without them.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Excellent.

Mr. Praznik, really quickly, when Buy America came into place, then-Congress representative Oberstar—he has since passed away—argued with me that we should look at doing a buy Canada act to try to at least exert some pressure against that. He represented Minnesota, so he understood the connections between our two countries.

When the U.S. says “water” versus “aqua”, why can't we just require them to use aqua when importing to Canada?

[Darren Praznik]

It gets more complicated in the use of those rules, but at the end of the day, you're involving products that come from Europe and the United States being shipped into other parts of the world, and that is the only place where we have an outlier, so getting into a war with them is not the best thing; it's to continue to make this an issue.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Time is up. That was two minutes, but you do have another round coming, so you're good.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Okay, thanks, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Readjusting for time, we're going back to round number two.

Mr. Longfield, you have four minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thanks, Mr. generous Chair.

I'm going to come back to J1939, the automotive controller area network standard. In southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, there are places where people are tapping into the network on a vehicle and they're using auto parts to build spray equipment for fields or they're making rail equipment. There are two parts to my question. You have a retirement wave happening among the mechanics and the people working on vehicles and there is also a gap involving people coming into the industry who don't necessarily understand the level of technology they are stepping into. So with regard to training people, let's say people with high school or college, on J1939, is there a movement afoot on that or is there something we could introduce through our manufacturing strategy to make a standard like that applicable across Canada, across the industry?

[Jean-François Champagne]

For sure, if an organization like ours were finding it challenging to be able to properly engage a wide variety of trade schools and polytechnics that offer various types of programs that feed into the automotive sector overall and into the aftermarket in particular, then with regard to your question, I think there is an opportunity to create a better synergy between industry and the education sector and to ensure that the training that is provided to people in those trade schools and polytechnics is better aligned with industry.

As to whether or not there is a set of standards, such as the one you mentioned or others, that relate to the sector, there may be a way to do this, but this is something to be discussed with other stakeholders as part of that. To answer, I would say yes, that there is an opportunity for that.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

So there's an opportunity for sure, then.

Mr. Praznik, you mentioned market access as being a problem in trying to coordinate between Health Canada, the FDA, and the consumers bureau. Is it a thorn or is it something that's in process? Is it something that we need to highlight?

[Darren Praznik]

That's a very good question. I think the problem is a systemic cultural one. Those departments in Canada—Environment Canada, Health Canada, and the consumers bureau—are regulatory departments. Their prime mandate is the protection of Canadians in their respective areas. What they don't often appreciate is that they're also market access departments, and that the rules they write determine how products get on the market. They don't think in those terms.

Culturally, they have to think that it's a dual mandate, and use their influence with other regulators to get change around the world. It's hard to imagine, but when you sit with them, you get no sense that they have a role to play in the economy. That dual role has to be thought about.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you. My time is ticking down here.

We have a pillar, on page 110 of our budget, that talks about a supportive business environment for commercialization and growth. Could you see that as something we'd maybe want to invest some time and money on?

[Darren Praznik]

Absolutely.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Perfect. Thank you.

Finally, in my less than 30 seconds, with regard to the 200 projects, you mentioned a 20-year procurement. We're about to start a defence review process. Are you aware of the defence review process, and would you be participating in that?

[Christyn Cianfarani]

Yes. I have already participated in the process, at the Vancouver inaugural round table.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Nice. That's good to hear.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Mr. Dreeshen, you have four minutes.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

I had the opportunity this morning to meet with Tom Jenkins, as he was part of the first innovation awards from the Governor General at Rideau Hall. It's interesting to know the kind of work that he and the committee have put together. On that, I'd like to talk about “Leveraging Defence Procurement Through Key Industrial Capabilities”.

Last week we spoke with the aerospace industry, so we're getting an idea of some of their concerns and issues. Could you perhaps let us know what will be some of the metrics used to determine the success features that you'll see for the KIC implementation?