Industry Committee on April 14th, 2016

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

With all due respect, Mr. Minister, I asked you a question.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

—opportunity to engage with you and any questions you have. I would be glad to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Mr. Nuttall, let him finish.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Mr. Chair, this has nothing to do with the question that was asked—nothing.

Mr. Minister, I will ask again. Will you ignore a committee report regarding Bombardier, yes or no? It's a very easy question to answer.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Again, as I said, the committee determines its own fate. Whatever procedures and processes and reports you have, I wish you all the best in that endeavour. I'm here now to take this opportunity to address any questions you have about the main estimates—

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

I just asked you a question, sir, and it's part of—

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

—about the mandate, about the budget—

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

I'm going to intervene for a second.

Mr. Nuttall, I would ask that you respect.... You're asking questions—

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

—and the minister is giving you an answer. Please tone down.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Mr. Chair, this is a legal proceeding. This committee is essentially on par with the courts. The questions that are asked need to be answered. The witnesses need to answer the questions

Mr. Bains, I guess the final question I would ask you—if you could, give me a yes or no, and if you don't want to, just say “I don't want to”—is: are you specifically opposed to this committee conducting a study and providing an opinion on the matter?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Again, thank you very much for this opportunity, Chair, and to the member for talking about an important matter.

As you know, the issue with respect to Bombardier has been in the public for a few months. The company came to me on December 11 to request up to a billion dollars. We've been very clear since then that we are looking at the business case, that we're doing our due diligence, and that we will do what's in the best interest of the public.

I can say that we've been along that process, and if there's any feedback I receive from any source—

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

—we welcome it. I have an open-door policy. I look forward to engaging this committee.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

If other stakeholders want to give an opinion, we welcome that. Again, it's part of our government's open and transparent process, and I look forward to any feedback that will help us in terms of our due diligence.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

I would say it is unprecedented to have three hours with three ministers, and I congratulate you on that. My expectation is that when those ministers are here before this committee, they answer the questions that are asked of them.

Mr. Minister, there was an announcement yesterday of $9.7 million related to the car of the future. First of all, let me say, on behalf of this side of the House, that we support the car of the future program. One thing that was missing in the announcement was how many jobs will be created using that $9.7 million.

Could you tell me in a finite number specific to this contribution how many jobs there will be?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Thank you, again, for the question.

The program you're talking about is the automotive supplier innovation fund. This is an announcement that Minister Chagger and I made in Kitchener. This pertained to our commitment to invest in innovation in the auto sector, particularly within the supplier community. We had up to 19.6 million dollars' worth of commitments. Of that, $9.7 million was for the company Pravala. If you look at the statement that we submitted, the backgrounder mentions the specific dollar amount for each of those initiatives, and in some cases the jobs depend on how the company proceeds going forward. But I can tell you one thing—

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Please clarify, because I only have 30 seconds left. How many jobs?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Again, if you look at the backgrounder—

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

It's not there, that's why I'm asking, because—

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

That's the point I'm making. We've made the investment—

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

So no jobs?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

If you allow me to finish, I can answer that question.

The investment that we make allows these companies to be able to invest in people, processes, and products. That does create jobs, and those jobs can vary from five to 20. But the whole goal is not simply about jobs today, it's about creating success for them going forward. These are meaningful investments that do create good quality jobs.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Minister. I know my time is done.