International Trade Committee on Oct. 16th, 2018

[John Young]

The short answer is the duty-relief portion. It was imposed July 1 by the Canadian government. By August 16 we got approval, and we started immediately. Then as soon as we got duty relief, we went and started the process of doing duty drawback, and we're submitting our first submission to the CBSA this week.

[Eric Humphrey]

We submitted our first duty drawback in the middle of August for imports from the month of July and the beginning of August. We have not received any payment yet.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

There are a couple of minutes left for Mr. Fonseca.

Mr. Badawey used a lot of time, but he had a good question, and there were good answers. So you have time for one question.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Yes, he did.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank our presenters. You spoke so eloquently, really. You spoke to the values of fairness and unfairness.

Mr. Clutterbuck, you were talking. What's unfair we all know, and what unites us all here is that section 232 should be gone from Canada. When we talk about fairness, the United States has brought up section 232 as a security issue. We've heard different. I think we would all agree that, if anything, we help with the security of the United States. With regard to the program we now have in place, which has taken us over these weeks and months, and looking into the future, with what we are doing for workers and how we are trying to help in terms of the remittances, etc., where do you see that those could be improved? What can be changed if this is prolonged over weeks and months? What do you see in terms of our retooling of the program we're offering today?

Anybody can answer.

Mr. Clutterbuck.

[Tim Clutterbuck]

I'll try to be brief this time.

Really, what I see—and I did mention—is that there needs to be some relief for this period of adjustment. We're all adjusting. We're all trying to figure out ways to make it work. That needs to be economic relief. People are paying dollars to the government, and they need to have some of that back, either through a speedier process that these gentlemen would go through.... I don't have that issue, because basically I have the other problem, with people trying to do this duty drawback and duty relief.

I think the process needs to be faster, but I also think there needs to be some recognition that this action is not legal. There should be some recourse, for companies that have been injured, to somehow be reimbursed for lost profits.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

You also talked about the threshold. You'd like to see a threshold change when it comes to the SIF?

[Tim Clutterbuck]

As it relates to the SIF, definitely the threshold sits at $20 million. There are not a lot of small or medium-sized enterprises that are ready to turn the shovel on a $20-million dollar project. Certainly that's a challenge for us. I also believe there is a threshold for numbers of employees which, again, needs to be reconsidered. In any discussions I've had, I've suggested that may be reconsidered.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Mr. Closner, thank you very much for employing all the people that you do in Mississauga. I'm an MP from Mississauga. Our parliamentary secretary, Omar Alghabra, is also an MP from Mississauga. We highly value the manufacturing sector. Thank you so much for that.

Mr. Humphrey, as you were speaking, with regard to the remittances, you said you will receive 94% and that 6% is outside of the criteria for that field. Is that 6% something you've brought to the attention of the ministry?

[Eric Humphrey]

We haven't yet. We've just started analyzing the drawback. There is one HS code that we pay duty under, which was not included on the amendment A and our amendments 1 and 2, so we'll be going back.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, Mr. Fonseca.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

We do have experts here who can help you out with that.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

That's it. Thank you, folks, for coming. These have been challenging times for all of us this last year, but especially for your companies and the people who work for you. We'll keep at it.

We're going in camera. MPs, I need you for five minutes.

We're just going to take one minute to get everybody out of this room who's not supposed to be here so we can go in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]