Industry Committee on April 29th, 2024

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Yes, I want to speak to the proposed amendment.

Far be it from me to get involved in what is going on in Ontario, but the crux of the matter is precisely the fact that, in my opinion, the provinces are accountable to their people, not to the House of Commons. So I would be inclined to oppose this amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Okay.

I don't think there are any other speakers. I would suggest that we vote on the amendment and then come back to the motion.

(Amendment negatived: nays 10; yeas 1)

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Unfortunately for you, Mr. Masse, your amendment was defeated.

That brings us back to the motion as presented by Mr. Williams.

Mr. Turnbull.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to say we had a very detailed subcommittee report that came back to the committee. We had agreed on a set schedule. We have quite a lot of business that we've prioritized and we've even wedged in some additional meetings to make sure that everybody has opportunities to study their various topics.

Obviously, Conservatives, we know that you are bringing a new motion every single week with a timeline that seems to want to delay Bill C-27 work. I'm not saying this isn't an important topic. I don't want you to hear it that way.

I notice, though, Mr. Williams, Honda isn't even included. You started by talking about Honda and it is not even in the motion you brought, which is kind of strange.

Regardless, I think that our committee calendar is completely full until the end of June when we break for the summer, so I would say that we stick to that. We reached consensus with the Conservatives around having an additional meeting on SDTC. If you want to have this instead of that, I think that's an option you could consider, but when you bring a new topic every single week that is supposedly urgent, I would just say that you've got to prioritize at some point and say what you really want to study.

I think we've all agreed Bill C-27 is taking priority. We're digging in; we're doing some great work together. We want to keep that momentum going. Maybe you can wait until the fall to study this or swap out SDTC. That's what I would humbly suggest as an alternative.

Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you, Mr. Turnbull.

Mr. Masse.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm really disappointed in this committee and the members for moving a motion like this without including the most important partner involved in this investment in Windsor and that is the Province of Ontario, which has not been addressed here. I understand the Bloc's position with that, but, at the same time, it's going against the province's opportunity to have its voice here at the table as opposed to its voice being used and abused.

If you watch the Honda announcement that took place, it was just an unbelievable compliment session for half an hour, but it also included the fact the Province of Ontario has been a fifty-fifty partner with the federal government with regard to all of these investments, including the Windsor one. It had to be done twice, because the original investment was not the same as the current ones that were offered, and it was obviously going to walk away from the table at that point in time.

For us not to have the province is kind of startling. Perhaps there's more to be learned from either the federal Conservatives or the federal Liberals with regard to why they don't want the province here to describe specifically how it went about creating decisions that are different for each plant. Stellantis, Volkswagen and Honda are all different, but they're all involved in constructing the new facilities and they have different contracts available to them, not only with regard to subsidies. Whether it is direct cash or direct subsidies to the battery development later on or whether it is the labour, it all is enforced, at the end of the day, by the Province of Ontario, because it has the Ministry of Labour, and it has the jurisdiction.

That we would want to work against the provincial jurisdiction to provide this type of opportunity to highlight what it is doing is bizarre and twisted, to be quite frank. How do you have a full partnership in front of us here to describe what's going on, including Stellantis or whoever else, when you don't even have the second half of the chapter there? It makes no sense whatsoever, and it's not going to lead to a solution. We're going to have letters and allegations from a number of different sources.

I appreciate the union coming forward on this, because it is on the ground floor right there, but it is also the one having to bring complaints to the Province of Ontario.

It's unbelievable that we would consider bringing it forward, again without Doug Ford's representation here at the table, given the massive subsidies it is putting in. Basically, I can't support some type of fishing expedition that's not going to end in a real result for workers, and that's what we want. We want the workers to have the real result.

If you remember correctly, when this first came into place last year, I said that the Stellantis project should have been the vessel to create the training and opportunities for the new places that are getting the investments now, because it was the forebear of all those things. I was there for the groundbreaking of the Stellantis project, and at the time nobody talked about foreign workers, not the federal government nor the provincial government. Because of our trade agreements and because of the way we've laid things out, it has left us basically susceptible to a number of practices that are continuing to antagonize the process of what we need to do as a country, which is to fight for good auto jobs.

Without that element as a part of it, in terms of having the federal government and the provincial government here, I find it not only just a missed opportunity; I find it disrespectful to the province. I find it disrespectful to the workers. I find it disrespectful to the citizens of Windsor who want clarity. I think it's unfortunate.

If we want to continue to use this as a political football, that's fine. If some partisan agreements that have been made, I guess, between the Province of Ontario and the federal government are too sensitive to talk about here, they are not going to go away. If we want something to go away or to be resolved, then we have to have the people here who are making the decisions and are the true partners. Again, this is the Province of Ontario, the federal government and all the companies involved, including the unions, that should have a voice here as well. Leaving them out is just unacceptable.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you, Mr. Masse.

Do I have any other speaker on the list or can I put the motion to a vote?

We'll go to a vote.

(Motion negatived: nays 6; yeas 5)

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

That brings us to the end of the meeting. Thank you, everyone. We'll see each other again on Wednesday.