Evidence of meeting #104 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agreement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-President, Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce
It's 15,000; I was going to say 12,000.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Okay, 15,000; that is big. That's obviously without being part of this agreement. Do you think that would grow if the agreement comes into effect?
Vice-President, Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce
I believe so. The Government of Canada, again, has been doing an excellent job in Brazil in promoting both French and English as languages. I think that just tends to grow. Canada is a safe destination, more than the U.S. In Brazil, family is a big thing, so the parents like to know that they are in a safe place, and they see Canada as a safe place that's close. It's not Australia.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
You also mentioned that you see the agreement helping the SMEs more than the large multinationals.
Specific to your chamber of commerce that you represent here today, is your membership made up mostly of SMEs or is it a mix?
Vice-President, Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce
It is a mix. We have companies like Brookfield and Gerdau. Gerdau said for them, whether Canada is a member of Mercosur or not won't make a difference because they have facilities here in Brazil, and in the U.S. We have bigger companies like Brookfield. It might make a difference in some things, but we're looking at the SMEs. They need help in resources from the government, from consultants. Those are the ones that are going to profit. These are the people who should be exporting to Canada.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you for that.
Mr. Galimberti, I want to talk about steel a little bit here.
The industry has been on a bit of a rebound in the recent past. You could look at things like Stelco coming out of insolvency. Obviously, there was a bit of a shock in March when the American administration announced the tariffs. Those were worked through. I think 80% of steel exports go to the U.S. Correct me if I'm wrong.
President, Canadian Steel Producers Association
Yes, it's in the ballpark.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Can you tell me in what ways you're looking at diversifying the export market for the steel industry? Mercosur doesn't seem to necessarily fit into any diversification plans that the steel industry may have, but are there other markets we should be trying to open up to the steel industry?
President, Canadian Steel Producers Association
Diversifying a market is extraordinarily difficult in the context of the global overcapacity challenge. Frankly, the export markets are flooded, and the further away you travel from the market, you lose the advantages you have.
That said, we have enormously innovative and efficient producers here in Canada, making extraordinarily high-tech, high-grade, quality product. Our success, from a market diversification standpoint, is tied to the health of our customers in Canada and what those customers are able to export as finished steel-containing goods, given their high quality. That's where we are.
You mentioned the tariffs. We have that exemption, certainly. It's a temporary exemption and we continue to work away at making that as permanent as we can.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Thank you, Mr. Peterson.
We're going to move over to the Conservatives now.
Mr. Carrie, you have five minutes.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank both of you for being here.
I come from Oshawa. Right next door to me is Gerdau Ameristeel. It's wonderful to have both of you here because it gives a little bit of perspective on the industry. These are good quality jobs for Canadians.
You spoke about some of the challenges, such as the dumping issues, things along those lines. Could you give us an idea on competitiveness and domestic policy? One of the things that was brought up was infrastructure. We have public infrastructure, but we also have private infrastructure, things like pipelines, which are, of course, made of steel. In the last couple of years we've had a horrible situation where foreign direct investment, because of domestic policy, something like $87 billion has been lost for pipeline projects. This would directly benefit Canadian jobs and the Canadian economy.
I have spoken to your colleagues or friends at Gerdau, and there is a bit of frustration on how domestic policy affects our ability to compete internationally. Gerdau had the ridiculous situation where they shut down an afternoon shift because the cost of electricity made it very expensive for them to do business.
Can you comment on what the Canadian government could do domestically, through policy or things we could encourage here for domestic use, that would help increase your volume and your competitiveness so that, as we move toward more open markets, Canada's steel could have that competitive edge, instead of worrying about not being able to compete?
Who would like to start on that?
President, Canadian Steel Producers Association
I'll take a shot at it.
Gerdau's a great example. I believe Gerdau is the largest volume recycler in Canada, turning scrap steel and used automobiles into new product that is specifically used for infrastructure. I mentioned the benefit that would be associated with that. Gerdau, I should also mention, operates in Selkirk, Manitoba, and Cambridge. It's not just Whitby, although their largest facility is in Whitby. I think that they would be one of the more direct beneficiaries.
If the Government of Canada were to take a look at having a full life-cycle analysis of GHG built into its sourcing for infrastructure projects or built into the sourcing for infrastructure projects that are just funding through provincial governments. Sometimes that funding is passed through, but I don't think that obviates the responsibility to make sure that the inputs are responsibly sourced. I think that would be a tremendous help for them. It also makes a lot of sense from an environmental perspective. If we are concentrating on building green infrastructure in Canada, we should make sure the inputs associated with that infrastructure are green.
You mentioned pipelines. Evraz, which is out in my hometown of Regina, has been building a large diameter line pipe for those projects for a long time in a very environmentally responsible manner using recycled steel from across western Canada. They're literally getting used farm implements out of yards, melting them down, and turning them into extraordinarily safe, high-quality, very advanced pipe that is providing a lot of really excellent employment in Regina, Saskatchewan.
I think those are both really good news stories and very environmentally responsible narratives.
I know how our producers behave and how conscious they are about these things. As an industry, that's something we probably need to do a better job of featuring, but we'd certainly appreciate a government commitment, on the infrastructure front, to make sure that this would be policy that would be carried through.
Conservative
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I agree with you very much. In Ontario, I think 1,100 companies and over 42,000 jobs depend on the oil and gas sector. We're seeing a bit of a shock in that sector right now, as far as pipelines being built. We're hoping that the Prime Minister, who is over in other parts of the world, really does work on selling Canada and some of the strengths we have.
I was wondering, Ms. Saad—since I come from Oshawa—you mentioned some automotive opportunities in Brazil. Could you expand on those a little bit?
Vice-President, Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce
Automotive parts, they import them—
Liberal
Vice-President, Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce
They import automotive parts from Magna Canada and from a couple of other manufacturers for parts, but not the automobile. The automobile has very high taxation, so that won't be happening, or if it does happen, it will cost a lot of money.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
We have time for one more MP.
We're going to go to the Liberal Party.
Madam Lapointe, you have the floor.