Evidence of meeting #31 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was smes.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Susan Bincoletto  Assistant Deputy Minister, International Business, Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

11:50 a.m.

Conservative

Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC

That is the challenge that I referenced earlier on in my comments.

Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises are really our target now because the big companies know what to do. They have the resources to do it. It's our SMEs that really have great difficulty penetrating these markets because they are risk averse and very cautious. They're unaware of the tools that government is making available to them.

My role as trade minister, especially through the global markets action plan, is to actually promote those tools and to engage on a more persistent level with our SMEs across the country. I can't do that alone. We collectively in this room can't do that alone.

We're going to have to work together with all of the key agencies, the industry associations in Canada, the accounting associations, to make sure that we're actually communicating the information that SMEs need to make informed choices as they start to explore a plethora of export opportunities around the world.

11:50 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield

Thank you very much, Ms. Bincoletto.

Thank you for being here, Minister, thank you very much for your time.

That takes us to the end of this session and actually we're into the House. For the committee's information, we will not only suspend but adjourn this and pick it up on Tuesday.

The meeting is adjourned.