Industry Committee on Oct. 3rd, 2024

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I don't understand your question. You're referring to people who don't have the capacity that you referring to.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

You don't understand that the CEO was given 800,000 shares of his own company...?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I do not understand the comments you made before about the finance minister.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I'll move on, then, since you don't seem to be aware of the CEO's compensation when you gave him $2 billion recently.

Are you aware that because of your announcement and the stock appreciation, he has another 360,000 shares that are now in the money? The total of all that value is $21 million that's gone up for the CEO, Daniel Goldberg, since your announcement.

Are you aware of that?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

You know, about the CEO, I would hope that you care as much about the workers for whom we are providing a future in building two satellites a day. You focus a lot on one person as opposed to on workers in the industry, Mr. Perkins. I think you should see that as a way for us to protect national security. For you not to acknowledge that we are going to have a whole network of LEO satellites in Canada....

I think Canadians watching at home are wondering why you would focus on one and not on them.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I'm sure they're wondering why Liberals are enriching themselves to the point of $21 million on a company that isn't paying back any of the $5 billion of loans that you've given them. When you made this latest $2-billion bailout announcement, you said that it was making the sector flourish, but isn't it really just making carbon tax Carney and Liberals' bank accounts flourish?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Perkins, I have a lot of respect for you, because you're a man of honour, but I don't think Canadians and democracy are well served by comments like that and by saying things that are not factually correct, sir. I think Canadians watching at home—

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I don't think it's well served by Liberals—

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I respect you—you're an honourable member of this House—but I don't think spreading things like you're doing now and the lies are helping, sir.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

—enriching themselves at your government's expense and taxpayers' expense.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Mr. Perkins, let the minister answer. The general rule is that we give as much time for the answer as it took for the question.

Minister, you still have a few seconds left, and then we'll—

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I am happy to answer any questions, sir, but I think every member in this House, me included, should be honourable and think that we're here to serve democracy and Canadians. Spreading facts that are not accurate is not helping democracy.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Being honourable is answering the questions when you're asked in a parliamentary committee, and you're not answering our questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Okay, Mr. Perkins, I would also appreciate.... I've heard comments referring to people by some sorts of funny names.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

We're not in kindergarten.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

This is for a playground or the House of Commons, but not for the committee, okay? I would appreciate it if we stuck to more decorum in this committee.

MP Badawey.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Minister, the Prime Minister and you recently made a $1.6-billion announcement on an investment in the city of Port Colborne. Asahi Kasei Corp. is a leading supply chain partner with Honda. My question is going to lead to and go a bit more in depth with respect to supply chains, both binationally and internationally.

Can you speak about the investments that you and your team are making to strengthen productivity, as well as about superclusters—like the EV superclusters across the country—as in the announcement that was just made in the city of Port Colborne?

The coordinated and strategic approach you have taken has led to strengthening regional integration; enhancing cross-border coordination, as well as resilience and competitiveness; a bilateral approach, sometimes even leading to an international approach; strengthening the resilience of supply chains; diversifying sources; joint capital investments; a coordinated binational strategy that encourages joint investments in, for example, transportation, technology, workforce development, and environmental and trade standards; an opportunity to harmonize environmental and labour standards within our supply chains; and finally, future-proofing against disruptions, focusing on creating contingency plans and adopting frameworks to ensure that not only our country but also the countries that we partner with can respond quickly to unforeseen challenges.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I just want to say thank you.

All of those watching, you've been instrumental in landing that big investment in Port Colborne. I'm glad to see Port Colborne as part of the big supply chain we've built.

You have also reminded me of something in my role as co-lead of Canada-United States engagement. There are three things that always come to mind when you talk to our friends down south and that really matter for Canada.

The first thing is security. I think today was a lot about that, and I'm happy about the question from the Conservatives because it highlighted the investments we've made to protect our national security, to protect the north and the Arctic. I can tell you that this resonates with our American partners.

The second thing that I would say resonates with our American partners is supply chain resiliency. Coming out of COVID, those global supply chains are becoming more regional. I remember recently being with one CEO in the United States who said, “Do you know what I like about you in Canada? If things go wrong, I can truck stuff to Canada. If it goes really wrong, I'll put it in the back of my car.” That just highlights the role of the key strategic supply chain that we've built between Canada and the United States.

It is the same thing for semiconductors. Canadians should be proud that 80% of all the semiconductors manufactured in the United States—packaged and tested in North America—are packaged and tested in Canada; it's 80% of all of them. That is the strategic nature of the supply chain we have.

The last thing is a growth agenda for North America. I can tell you that this is bipartisan. When I talk to Republicans, they say, “We love you. You talk business.” When I talk to Democrats, they say, “We love you, because you're aligned on policy.”

What you are highlighting is, I think, what we have been able to achieve as Canadians. It's not about me. It's about us, as Canadians, and what we have achieved, thanks to your work as the members of this committee, the work of parliamentarians and this government. We have seized the opportunity of a generation, and now who is benefiting? It's communities like Port Colborne. It's Mr. Masse from Windsor and our colleague Irek from Windsor. It's communities like St. Thomas and like Baie-Comeau, in my neck of the woods. You're changing the industrial landscape of this country. It's never going to look the same, because we seized the moment and the opportunities.

I so wish—because I know my time is over, Mr. Chair—that this could be a whole-of-Parliament thing. I wish the Conservatives would realize, as well, that we're building the country of the future, that we're investing in workers and that we're lending historic investment. We should celebrate Canadian companies. We should celebrate Canadian workers, and we should celebrate what Canada has been able to achieve. That's what Canadians expect from us.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you, Minister, for making time to meet with the committee and answering our questions. Thank you as well to the officials joining you this morning.

We're going to suspend briefly. We'll have just the department officials with us for the second hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

We are now resuming the meeting.

Remaining with us for the second hour of today's meeting are Mr. Tessier, Mr. Bilodeau and Ms. Gregory, from the Department of Industry. They won't be making an opening statement, since the minister already gave one.

I will yield the floor to Mr. Patzer for six minutes.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Thank you very much, Chair.

I'll start off the top here with this. The minister indicated that we will be making loads of money off this loan that we gave to Telesat. The loan was in 2021. It's now 2024. How much money has the Government of Canada made in that loan payback plan?

[Francis Bilodeau, Acting Deputy Minister, Department of Industry]

Our funding to date for Telesat includes a contribution under SIF, which was $85 million. It includes a $600-million prepurchase agreement, where nothing has been paid so far. It includes a recent loan in the amount of $2.14 billion—

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Yes, but the $600 million and the $85 million were in 2019. That's not what I asked about. That's a contribution agreement. There's a loan for $800 million. He was saying, oh, it's at 2%, and then we're loaning it at 10%. He said we'll make money on that.

How much money has the Government of Canada made in the three years since that loan in 2021 was given out?

[Francis Bilodeau]

I'd be happy to come back directly to provide the committee with all details of the financial agreement with Telesat.