International Trade Committee on Feb. 4th, 2015

[Gerry Bruno]

I'm sorry.

The policy changes that I talked about bring benefits in terms of added employment and facilitation of trade and travel. They do so, for the most part, without the need for federal government investment, an important consideration in times of fiscal constraint and economic uncertainty.

I want to close by reiterating the importance of policy alignment for ensuring that Canada remains a vibrant and competitive trading nation. Trade, air, visa and border policies all need to work in concert to ensure that opportunities for Canadian companies in global markets are maximized.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Randy Hoback]

Thank you, Mr. Bruno.

Mr. Davies, you have seven minutes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Bruno, and thank you, Mr. Taylor, for being with us today.

Mr. Taylor, I'm going to start with you. We heard some previous testimony, if I got it right, that projects an increase in Asian tourism. I'm not quite clear if that's Canadian tourists going to Asia or Asians coming this way, but it's pretty much explosive growth. I think it's estimated at 7.1% per year for the next number of years.

Do you have any advice for this committee in terms of how Canada and Canadian companies can tap into that growing Asian market?

[Rob Taylor]

Predominantly, it is the Chinese market that we're forecasting the growth from. TIAC serves the role in Canada of being the registrar of the approved destination status program. We've been working across the country in embracing cultural.... It's more of a cultural engagement from a tourism perspective, and being able to provide the creature comforts, so to speak, and ease that cultural gap—the way we conduct business, the foods that we eat, and everything we do in Canada—for those coming from China, particularly. We have a consultant who works with our organization. She goes across the country, working with destinations—she just came back from the Yukon—helping develop that capacity to develop a destination where we're going to be able to provide those services to the travelling public.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

We have to up our IQ when it comes to Asian culture, the Chinese culture specifically?

[Rob Taylor]

If you look at Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, there's a large diaspora there, a large Chinese population. We have the infrastructure there. You just have to look at Ottawa. We have symbols and a welcoming presence in Ottawa for visitors from other countries, particular China. There's quite a bit that can be done, particularly in the outlying and more remote areas.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

Mr. Bruno, I'm going to turn to you. Do I understand you correctly that at present it's the case that visitors coming to YVR who are going to be moving through YVR, not staying in Canada, flying out, need a visa just to be in the airport?

[Gerry Bruno]

That's correct. There is a very limited transit-without-visa program that applies only to the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Thailand. We have a China transit program, but that's limited to three cities in mainland China. Our objective is to expand that to more cities in China. That will help stimulate more air services from China as well.

We have a number of airlines that have already indicated to us that they would fly to Vancouver and carry on to the United States if they could carry these transit passengers without a visa. Now, these passengers would have a visa to go to the U.S. already.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Could I ask you, if it's not too much trouble, to provide this committee with a list of the countries or cities that need such a visa? That might assist us in making recommendations.

[The Chair, Conservative, Randy Hoback]

Or would it be easier to go with the cities that have a visa?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Whichever way is easier, so that we have an idea of where the problem areas are.

[Gerry Bruno]

All right, I'm happy to do that.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

[Gerry Bruno]

I'll provide a list, yes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I also had a question about capacity. You mentioned the importance of the seafood industry to British Columbia. I'm an MP from Vancouver. We're signing some trade agreements. We just signed an agreement with Korea. We have a tentative deal with the European Union. Seafood's a big part of it, as well as other products.

If we plan on expanding Canadian exports to international destinations and a lot of this will have to go by air cargo, do you see any issues with respect to airline cargo capacity?

[Gerry Bruno]

Korea is a great example because the policy trinity is at play there. We have free trade, they don't require a visa to come to Canada or to transit through Canada, and we have open skies, so that works.

But there are obviously a lot of other economies where there are restrictions, and the opening up of those markets through air bilaterals would certainly allow more cargo lift to those markets. We have a number of them that we are targeting, the countries I named in Southeast Asia in particular and in South America. We have great trade ties with Chile but no direct services out of Vancouver to South America.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I'm not sure I expressed my question clearly enough.

I'm interested in capacity. Do we have enough capacity in our aircraft that are flying to these places to take the expanded cargo that we intend to send to those places?

[Gerry Bruno]

The two go hand in hand because as you increase passenger services—and as I mentioned a little earlier, most of the cargo actually flies in the belly of passenger aircraft—the larger wide-bodied aircraft today have a lot of cargo capacity.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I want to switch to maintenance. We heard some testimony earlier today, Mr. Bruno, about the importance of maintenance, repair, and overhaul as part of the whole airline industry. I think the figures we were given were that it's about a $6 billion a year industry and it creates about 25,000 jobs.

I know that at YVR we had the unfortunate experience of losing Aveos, the aircraft maintenance facility, to El Salvador, I think. I just wonder if there is anything you can tell this committee about how we can encourage the maintenance, repair, and overhaul industry at YVR or any other airport.

[Gerry Bruno]

It's globally very competitive. In order to be successful, I think this is where government and the airport have to come together because these people are looking for tax breaks and all sorts of other deals like that, which other countries and jurisdictions are offering them. So it is a partnership. It has to be the provincial government, the federal government, and the local airport authority, which are trying to attract these types of operations, working together and putting together a competitive offer.

[The Chair, Conservative, Randy Hoback]

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

We'll go to Mr. Cannan.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Bruno, for being here as part of our study of the positive effects of the global market action plan, otherwise known as GMAP.

Coming from Kelowna—Lake Country in the Okanagan, I appreciate the importance of both sectors. Tourism is one of the economic engines that drive our economy. Definitely with YLW, you're linked to the world. I know that Mr. Bruno and Sam Samaddar, our airport manager, talked briefly offline. He sends his regards. He works closely with YVR. Kelowna is the 10th busiest airport in Canada, and we continue to see the economic benefits.

I've worked with former Richmond MLA Rob Howard, some of the economic development officers across the provinces, and other MLAs on a strategic plan on the Asia-Pacific. Following up on the question of my colleague, Mr. Davies, the earlier witnesses said that 7.1%, or half of the world's air traffic growth, will be driven by travel to, from, or within the Asia-Pacific region.

With the Asia-Pacific gateway and the investments that governments have made over the years, how well is Canada and the Canadian aviation sector positioned to take advantage of this anticipated air traffic growth, both from an air traffic and a tourism perspective? Could you comment on that first question, please?

To both of you, but Mr. Taylor, please go first, thanks.

[Rob Taylor]

In terms of the capacity across the country, we're well positioned to take on the additional growth. The main challenges are very much as I outlined in my testimony today. We have a number of public policy challenges in terms of facilitating the people coming into the country.

We have seen some significant changes over the last year or so around the CAN+ program where the processing of visas from the key emerging markets has been expedited for those who have either travelled to Canada or the United States previously or are in possession of a U.S. multiple entry visa.

Where our industry would love to see more collaboration and cooperation in these areas is following examples like the recent announcement between Ireland and the United Kingdom where they have a reciprocal visa process. We would hope that, under the beyond the border program between Canada and the United States, we would start to see much better collaboration between the two countries.

As Mr. Bruno mentioned, the transfer without visa and a number of these initiatives would be augmented if we were able to have either a single window or a North America-type visa where we recognize credentials on both sides.

We do have a policy challenge on the forefront in terms of how well we integrate the electronic travel authorization program into this, which will impact people travelling from non-visa waiver countries.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Bruno.

[Gerry Bruno]

I fully agree with Mr. Taylor's comments.

The visa issue is a big one. We just completed a submission through the Canadian Airports Council to the CTA review and have made very strong recommendations on improving the visa process. Other countries are doing it. We strongly believe we need to do something bigger in North America under the beyond the border action plan. We've recommended that we move maybe to a Schengen type of arrangement with the U.S. so that foreign visitors can freely travel between Canada and the U.S. with just one visa.

These are all improvements that need to be made and that will help to open up the market.