Evidence of meeting #23 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Thank you. I'll be really quick.
You're not asking for anything for free. You want to pay for the software. You want to pay for the training. You want to pay for all the equipment and follow all the rules. Is that correct?
Board of Directors, Automotive Industries Association of Canada
Yes. I think what we said is that, if we want to take the training and buy the equipment to fix the car, we want to have the right to fix the vehicle. No one's asking for anything for free. We don't want government handouts. Our guys will pay for the training and access the information, but we don't want to pay 12 different OEs for 12 different fees. It would be nicer to have centralized control for the information.
Liberal
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today. My first couple of questions are for Mr. McPherson.
I wanted to ask you whether you are familiar with the Canada digital adoption program.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mississauga Board of Trade
I'm familiar with it, but I'm not an expert in it.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Fair enough.
Is that something that your organization has marketed or promoted, and have you had any feedback from your members on it?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mississauga Board of Trade
Yes. I think it's fabulous. I think it's necessary. We are partnered through the Ontario Chamber of Commerce on the digital adoption program.
I would encourage more of this. I think it's also important from the standpoint of cybersecurity. Increasingly, this is going to be an area that SMEs need to invest in. Again, it's another cost for small and medium-sized businesses, but if we think about some of the advice that several experts provided with regard to being prepared for a pandemic, we're in a moment now where we need to heed the advice in terms of being prepared for cybersecurity attacks and those impacts on small businesses.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
To clarify, are you referring to the digital main street program, which is provincial?
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Okay, so you're kind of including that as part of that. Fair enough.
You referenced tax increases and how those could kind of play through and potentially have unintended consequences. I know that within your membership you have a real mix, from winery representatives to food service and motels, and entertainment to arts.
With something like the excise tax increase, first you have the manufacturer, but then it goes down to these restaurants, motels and ultimately to the consumer. Is that what you mean, that with those tax increases, at some point along the chain someone has to decide to increase the prices?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mississauga Board of Trade
The excise tax is a great example that you're providing. Certainly our member, Arterra Wines, has been a very vocal proponent of not moving to increase that tax.
Yes, that is what I'm referring to. Any new taxes and regulations that are introduced that put additional costs on small businesses, which are already dealing with substantial amounts of accumulated debt, directly affect their ability to compete and survive.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Fair enough.
I guess you could also use a similar comparison, would you agree, with the carbon tax? That's really adding to all of the costs for businesses, because a lot of what they're using is shipped. Therefore, with all of the transportation costs, again, it just adds to the cost of everything at a time when a lot of small and medium-sized businesses are really pressed within their budgets.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mississauga Board of Trade
That's true, but I would also say that our members are very much wanting to contribute to solutions for climate change. I think it's a matter of ensuring that we don't put our businesses at a competitive disadvantage, whether it be through a carbon tax or cap and trade and so on.
I think we need to be mindful of the competitive context when it comes to competition both within the country but specifically with our competitor jurisdictions outside of Canada.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Fair enough. I was referring to just those increases here that might be proportionately different....
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Great. Thank you so much.
I'd now like to go to Mr. Skelton.
Thank you for being here today as well.
I wanted to touch on the red-tape issues that your group highlighted. Would you say in the present time that the regulatory environment in Canada is predictable and stable?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Health Food Association
Thank you for the question.
I think there is a predictability to what we have now. What concerns our members the most, I think, is the phasing and the rollout of what's been discussed in future changes to the self-care framework. It's the ability to predict the timing and the scope of those changes and to plan their businesses accordingly.
As I touched on, coming out of the last 24 months, I think there's a lot of concern for our small and medium-sized businesses on how to navigate what uncertainty is ahead, and not having a clear road map and some predictability for when these changes will happen and how they'll be coordinated is definitely a concern to our membership.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Good. I'll squeeze in one more quick one here.
I know you've touched on Health Canada, but have you come across any difficulties in other departments as well?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Health Food Association
I would say the majority of what I'm prepared to speak to today is around Health Canada. I think our members, as some of the other presenters today have said, are firmly committed to working with different organizations to find the best outcome for both sides. Specifically today, it's about Health Canada. That would be our commentary.
