Industry Committee on May 18th, 2017

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

There are several—at least two—pieces of legislation in the House of Commons that are being debated. Part of the challenge is that this is the Government of Canada, and it belongs to all Canadians. If it's going to be a matter of us versus them, it doesn't really benefit the people we're working for. Bill C-25 is legislation that has been advanced by the government. Minister Bains, I understand, will be here right after me, and will welcome those opportunities.

With different approaches, we're really trying to make sure we're taking the steps to achieve the goals and the outcomes that we want to get to. Some people would like to get us there faster and believe that we'll have the results, and there will be some disagreements in that sense.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

That's rather unfortunate, because you profess that that's important, but I would say there's still an opportunity to fix the bill before it goes forward.

When will these meetings take place on the Trump-Trudeau initiative?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

I don't have a schedule of meetings, but I'm sure that's information that's always made publicly available anywhere the Prime Minister goes and the media follows, but I don't have the schedule—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I don't believe the Prime Minister sits on this panel.

[Kelly Gillis, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Industry]

The schedule is still being worked out, and the details of the interoperability between the two countries are still part of an ongoing discussion.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Will the meetings take place in Canada?

[Kelly Gillis]

That has not been determined yet.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

I'll be fighting for that to happen.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

When will we have more information?

[Kelly Gillis]

I don't have the details of the exact schedule. The announcement was made, and there are a number of prominent people who are involved in sharing their mindshare on how we advance this important initiative.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Have those people been contacted? How long do we wait before that takes place, then?

[John Knubley, Deputy Minister, Department of Industry]

What I understand is that there have been ongoing discussions with the members on the Canadian side, and there continue to be preparations for their meetings.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Okay, well, I mean, you come here and you talk about it, and you indicate they're important, but you have no information about the initiative. You put it in your speaking notes. Yes, you mentioned it.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

I did.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Yes, right, and then this was announced three months ago, and—

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Weren't we to discuss estimates at this meeting? I thought I was invited here to discuss estimates.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

No, no, you raised it in your own discourse to this committee. You raised it yourself.

I want to move on, but I find that troubling. To be quite frank, I'm trying to do this professionally.

If we move on to tourism, though, you didn't mention the United States in your remarks related to tourism. The United States has 22 million of the 27 million visitors coming into Canada. What are you doing specifically for United States visitors? You mentioned China, which is 500,000. What about the United States, especially since the dollar has slid against the U.S. dollar, and we're going into the season? What are you doing specifically for the United States?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

We have continued funding for the connecting America program, which is $30 million to Destination Canada. These are the programs I was referring to that make up the difference between the $37.5 million and the $95.5 million budget they have, aimed at strategic markets in the U.S.

Also, we're looking at our gateway communities in Canada to ensure that we're really creating the conditions for inclusive growth, so it's not just about the large urban centres, but rural and remote areas as well.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

On that, are you in touch with Canada Border Services Agency and tourism in terms of making sure we have the appropriate staffing on the land border crossings? That's one of the things that is always of concern.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

We're really taking the whole-of-government approach, so all ministers and cabinet colleagues are working closely together. This was the case even with the electronic travel authorization, ETA, when it was coming into place.

The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, our other counterparts, and I work closely together when it comes to pre-clearance legislation, which is really important for SMEs, as well as for tourists, so they have a good experience from the minute they book their travel to the minute they leave. I was consulted and able to share the perspective of our stakeholders.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much. We're out of time.

We're going to move to Mr. Sheehan, for five minutes, please.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much for that presentation. We really appreciate it.

I'm from Sault Ste. Marie, and we have two large first nations in the area—Garden River, Batchewana—and then we have urban and non-urban indigenous people and Métis. Part of this government's agenda is rebuilding that relationship with Canada's indigenous people. They're really appreciating it—I can tell you that much—and I get positive feedback. Their question to me is about wanting to do stuff around tourism, so what exactly does this government have for aboriginal tourism?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

It's an exciting time. Keith Henry is the head of ATAC, the Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada. ATAC is working really closely with Destination Canada. For the first time it's a relationship to ensure that we are working hand in hand because we recognize that there are huge opportunities there.

Budget 2017 provided $8.6 million to INAC that will end up being about growing tourism. The tourism vision that we came out with really focuses on marketing, access, and product, exactly in response to the constructive feedback we were receiving. We know there is already considerable success because in 2015 indigenous tourism generated $2.7 billion in gross economic output and $1.4 billion in GDP, which was up from $596 million in 2002, and we're talking about more than $142 million in taxes. There are huge business opportunities and an opportunity also to grow communities that have not had that opportunity in the past. Once again, it is about inclusive growth.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much.

I did a lot of work in my former life at the Economic Development Corporation with young entrepreneurs, and perhaps you can make some comments and tell us what is in this budget for young entrepreneurs. We know that 80% of all small businesses go out of business in the first three years. Young people are even more challenged, so what opportunities are there?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

We've continued funding for Futurpreneur. Futurpreneur has delivered great results—and that's why it's a program that really works—connecting the mentorship piece as well as the skills and development.

When it comes to budget 2017, we're talking about skills and development across the board to ensure that Canadians are ready for the jobs of today and tomorrow. We know that those skills will actually help them in the tourism industry as well. Rather than taking the silo approach, we are taking a whole-of-government approach, a whole-of-Canada approach, bringing the country together. Futurpreneur is really getting the huge potential in skills and development across the country for all generations.

Part of my mandate is really to look at under-represented groups, whether they are indigenous peoples, women, or youth, and then also look at the regional areas and what the shortages are there because we know that Canada has a huge land mass, but we are also quite diverse when it comes to our regions.