Industry Committee on Nov. 19th, 2020

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Well, as you know, it's going through the Senate, so as soon as it's passed, we're going to go as quickly as we possibly can, but it's backdated to September 26.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Okay.

The former program expired in September. Why did your government wait until November 2 to table legislation to replace it?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I think what's really important is that the legislation was passed in Parliament, it is going through the Senate and this support will be backdated to September 26 so that support gets out to businesses, which certainly need it right now as we head into—

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Okay.

Minister, your government had all summer to prepare a properly thought-out rent subsidy program, one that would help the businesses that need it most. Then, in the rush to suddenly dump it on November 2, without proper time to review the bill, you tabled a bill that will exclude those who could not pay the rent after your last program expired. How do you plan to address and fix that problem?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I think I would disagree with you from this standpoint. We listen to businesses. We continue to listen to businesses. My department continues to have daily or weekly calls, twice a week, with businesses so that they can provide input. Remember that rent support is absolutely important, but so is helping businesses make their payrolls. So is giving them liquidity so they can pay their bills and bridge some of those costs. This is a comprehensive program aimed specifically at helping businesses get through this period.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Thank you.

To that point, on what date will the post-December 19 details of the wage subsidy be available?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

The legislation, Bill C-9 of course, has worked its way through getting passed, which is terrific, and it is making its way through the Senate. We will be sure that the information is there for businesses. It's really important that we made those announcements when we did, because businesses were looking for certainty, and in our throne speech, we said that they could count on us to get this important support until the end of summer 2021. Businesses need to plan. They know that the support is going to be there. Rent support will be backdated until September 26, and lending support is there in addition to funding through CEBA—

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Minister, I agree with you that businesses do need certainty, and they don't have certainty in this bill. This bill doesn't contain the details that businesses can use to plan how to get through to next summer. Again, when do you plan to have the details of the wage subsidy post-December 19 available?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I would offer the following. We know that businesses need access to that important support so that they can keep people on the payroll. We are going to be providing up to 65% in wage subsidy support. It will be calculated on a sliding scale relevant to a business's revenue decline. The more hardship, the more support—and the inverse, of course, is true. They are going to get support until the end of next summer.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Thank you.

I have a quick question that I've asked several times before of both you and the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity. How much has been funded under the BCAP program so far?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Let me just take a look.

The BCAP has been a really important set of liquidity supports for those businesses, of course, that need greater liquidity support—

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

That's okay. I wondered if you knew today.

I'm going to ask Mr. Sloan if he wants to get that question in now, and I'll cede the rest of my time to Mr. Sloan.

[Derek Sloan, Conservative, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Yes, I'd love to. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Minister Monsef, for being here today.

I have just a quick question. A very important project in my neck of the woods is the EORN project. You mentioned it earlier. We're having some issues. We've submitted a business case project to your office for review. There's some concern about the different funding streams not being applicable, not being enough to fund the federal portion of this project. Can you work with our area? Can you commit to working with my office? I know we sent a letter out to your office earlier to work on this project. Can you commit to following up with me to work with local stakeholders to get into the right funding streams? There's been some confusion about the different streams. Can you commit to me today to doing that?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you, MP Sloan.

The EORN project is something I've been working on and aware of since I became an MP, so the short answer is yes.

[Derek Sloan, Conservative, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I appreciate that, and we'll be following up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

Our next round of questions goes to MP Jowhari.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Welcome to both of our ministers.

It's good to see that we have strong Ontario as well as York Region representation here.

Minister Ng, I'm going to start with you, if I may. You didn't get the chance to complete your response to the question of my colleague Madame Jaczek regarding the trade mission that you had with Korea. I noticed while we were voting that you were running back and forth and attending that meeting. If you could finish that in about a minute, I have a question also on the first-ever national Black entrepreneurship program, which I'd like an update on. I'll quickly then go to Minister Monsef.

Thank you.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Absolutely.

Really quickly, on the question around the trade mission, it's terrific. It's a virtual trade mission with over 200 businesses, with a focus on a subset of those being led by extraordinary women entrepreneurs in areas of health technology and agriculture and a range of just terrific businesses. Normally, you would see about 25 businesses, so bringing over 200 businesses to South Korea virtually is something that's been terrific to do.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

The fact that there are women entrepreneurs across all sectors is what really stands out for me. Thank you.

It's the first-ever national Black entrepreneurship program in Canada. In your opening remarks, you talked about over $200 million. Can you give us an update on where we are on that one?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you so much, MP Jowhari. As you and I share, along with our colleagues, we know how important it is that we have participation from all parts of society, to make sure they are fully participating in our economy. That's what creates jobs. That's what creates great communities across the country. Black-owned businesses are talented. They're innovative. They're resilient. We've been working very closely with Black entrepreneurs and Black-owned businesses to come up with this historic program.

This historic program is going to provide loans from $25,000 to $250,000 so that we can help businesses get that direct access to capital, which has been a barrier to their success. What is equally important is to make sure that we have an ecosystem of support for Black-owned businesses, and that Black-owned businesses have their voices directly in this and get the support, whether it's mentorship, financial and business training, or getting access to those networks that are just so important.

We are working very hard to make sure we include everyone in the economy. We know the contributions. We know the job creation that this program will yield. It's very exciting to have worked with so many Black-owned businesses and those organizations that represent Black-owned businesses. This program listened to their needs and was developed with their input at the table. We're looking forward to continuing that work.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

I'll quickly go to Minister Monsef.

It's good to see you, Minister.

I have a quick question on the disparity that I noticed in table 1 of the Library of Parliament document that was sent to us. That table—“Availability of Internet services that meet the CRTC target, by population size and by province/territory (% of households), 2018”—indicated a little bit of disparity between Ontario and some of the other provinces. That disparity came in the area of rural areas as well as first nations, which were much less represented. Although Ontario covers 87.2%, in the rural areas and on first nations reserves it's 29.5% and 17%.

Can you touch on that disparity between provinces? There are provinces that are much smaller, and their rural coverage and first nations reserves coverage is much higher, 60% and 70%.

I'll give you 45 seconds.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Look, this country can only reach its full potential if everybody has equal access to this essential service. There are some provinces that are better connected than others. There are some territories that are still struggling.

The universal broadband fund and our investments in low-earth orbit satellites are meant to provide the leadership that the federal government can provide to connect every community, in partnership with provinces and territories as well as the private sector and, of course, indigenous communities themselves.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Look at that, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

That was perfect timing.

Our next round of questions goes to Mr. Lemire.

Mr. Lemire, you have two and a half minutes.