International Trade Committee on Nov. 8th, 2018

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

But 600,000 jobs, respectfully—

[Mary Ng]

We have reduced—

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

That wasn't the question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

The time has wrapped up.

We're going to move over to the Liberals now.

Mr. Sheehan, you have the floor.

[Terry Sheehan, Sault Ste. Marie, Lib.]

Thank you very much, Minister, for appearing.

I just have a few questions. As you know, I used to work for the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation in small business entrepreneurship. I was the general manager there, and we were also responsible for inbound and outbound trade missions. We really haven't seen a whole lot of support over the last 10 years for trade missions in the regions, in rural and northern areas. We used to receive funding. We were in China, Portugal, Ireland, but there really hasn't been any funding in the last 10 years. There has been a little bit of a lack of initiative in that matter.

Do you foresee in your new portfolio—I know you've been there for three months—more support, more resources for economic development agencies and regional ones to put together and coordinate both inbound and outbound trade missions?

[Mary Ng]

That's a really good question. In fact, that's a question that I would actually love to hear about from the work that this committee will be doing and understanding from the businesses and the stakeholders that you're going to be hearing from ultimately about whether that would actually be one of those things that would help companies become more export ready.

I talked earlier about the CanExport program. It is helping Canadian companies that want to access and grow into a new market. In fact, it is direct funding to help them travel into a global market to attend a trade mission, so it's certainly there. But I think this is one area where you could certainly help us and let us know if that's a key ingredient that would be helpful to small and medium-sized businesses to become.... Is that an export readiness promoter that they see to be very valuable for their growth?

I would love the committee's perspective on that as you do your work.

[Terry Sheehan]

One of the other questions I have is whether you could speak to the importance of the small business tax cuts, because we've already had a very competitive rate. How would that be helping small businesses as they prepare to be export ready or to get back in the game?

[Mary Ng]

Thank you.

I guess I'll answer this as a way of answering your colleague's question around competitiveness.

We've lowered the taxes for small businesses. They were at 11%, and in January, in just a couple of short months, they're going to be lowered again to 9%. It's the lowest tax rate. It's one of the lowest in the G7 countries. It is going to help competitiveness, and the reason it's going to help competitiveness is that the business people who I've met have said that having extra capital, the extra capital they save as a result of the tax cuts, helps them reinvest into their business. It is very helpful. There hasn't been a business person I've met yet who says they don't like the tax cut.

[Terry Sheehan]

That's good.

You also served with me on the industry committee. You and I had some conversations about the Asian market and the untapped potential. Could you please just share some of your personal beliefs about the opportunities there?

[Mary Ng]

Yes. The CPTPP that I talked about a little earlier, the comprehensive and progressive trade agreement.... Before I go there, I would also like to say that actually comprehensive and progressive means that the trade agreements that are being negotiated have provisions in them in structure that actually provide preferential access for small and medium-sized enterprises. They have preferential access in a way that they didn't before, because of what we negotiated into these trade agreements, and they also provide access for women-owned, women-led and indigenous-led companies. I would say that as a macro in terms of the way in which we are negotiating treaty agreements so that they are actually inclusive and allow for greater participation. As for the Asia-Pacific countries, whether they're emerging countries like Vietnam or Malaysia or economies like Japan or Australia, CPTPP gives us access to more than 500 million new customers in that Asia-Pacific region.

China, of course, is our second largest trading partner, and we will continue to work with trading, as we do with our second largest trading partner, along with all of the countries as part of the CPTPP. This is about having competitive trade agreements that open the door for our small and medium-sized businesses to access those customers and to grow and to create good middle-class jobs right here in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, Minister.

That wraps up your time, Mr. Sheehan.

We're going to go to the Conservatives. Mr. Jeneroux, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, it's good to see you here. Congratulations on your post. We did a lot of good work together on the industry committee. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to go easy on you.

[Mary Ng]

Thank you.

That's okay. I wouldn't expect that.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

That's good.

I want to ask you something very point-blank. Have you had discussions with the environment minister on Bill C-69, the tanker moratorium and the carbon tax, and how detrimental they've been, particularly to western Canada?

[Mary Ng]

I've had conversations with the Minister of Environment. You know that we sit on cabinet together. This government believes that the economy and the environment go hand in hand.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Have you suggested to her how detrimental these have been to western Canada? Have you made that comment to her?

[Mary Ng]

I have not made that comment to her, but I have talked to the Minister of Environment about small to medium-sized businesses I've heard from, particularly those that are in the green economy.

I just met with a wonderful company this morning as part of Futurpreneur. This was an entrepreneur who's under 40 years old and has a great company that is helping other companies reduce their pollution and reduce costs at the same time. There are many companies that I've—

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

There's an 8% unemployment rate in Alberta, particularly in Calgary, in the oil and gas sector. Bill C-69, the tanker moratorium and the carbon tax are drastically impacting the competitiveness of those companies. Every day, companies are indicating that they're moving south of the border. These are small businesses.

I would encourage you to have conversations with the environment minister, but to indicate how detrimental Bill C-69, the tanker moratorium and the carbon tax are to these companies. Quite frankly, they can't survive. We've lost enough already and we can't afford to lose any more.

[Mary Ng]

I was in Calgary a couple of weeks ago at the end of Small Business Week. It was great. I didn't get to meet every single one of them individually, but there were about 400 businesses in the room, celebrating entrepreneurship and the growth of these wonderful SMEs. There was this new company that is touting the best barley in the world and growing as a result of what they are creating, and there were many clean-tech companies. I met several of them who told me they appreciate the investments this government is making, particularly around the growth of clean tech, and that it is going to help—

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Minister, I'll tell you who wasn't in the room: the small businesses that have been absolutely destroyed. The provincial level has been equally detrimental to these companies. Cumulatively, with the federal government's regulations, more red tape, and particularly Bill C-69, that has led a lot of these companies to move south. They don't have time to come to see you in a banquet hall somewhere to celebrate everything you think is great. These are companies that have lost employees. They're laying off people. The unemployment rate, again, is at 8%. I think that's the highest it's ever been in Alberta, and it's largely because of initiatives your government has introduced.

You now sit at the cabinet table and have a tremendous opportunity to stand up for these small businesses. Quite frankly, if you're not prepared to do that, the repercussions are going to be that you're not going to have members from Alberta next time around.

It's also detrimental to the entire economy. Alberta's a major driver of the Canadian economy. To continually put on these initiatives is just attack after attack on these small businesses. You didn't hear from them, Minister, while you were there, because they're not there anymore. They've moved. They've left the country. They've found somewhere else to do business, which has a lot less red tape and fewer regulations than what this government has put on them.

I encourage you again, Minister, to have those conversations with the environment minister and with the finance minister on how detrimental this government's policies have been for small businesses. Thank you.

[Mary Ng]

Let me just say that it was great to be with a whole bunch of businesses that the chamber put together, because they're recognizing how important and dynamic their growth is. I'm always very pleased to attend something hosted by businesses and hosted by chambers, where they actually get an opportunity to then sell—

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

But you've lost a lot of companies, Minister.

[Mary Ng]

With respect to regulatory changes, we repealed 108 and the previous government repealed 23 in the same amount of time. We take regulatory competitiveness seriously. I certainly do.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you. We're quite over time. I think we have time enough for Ms. Ramsey for three minutes.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

Thank you so much.

The one thing we have heard about here, which I would encourage you, again, to have a conversation with Minister Morneau—and I think Minister Bains, to be fair—about is the lowering of the CIF threshold. It's currently at $10 million. This does not serve small and medium-sized enterprises at all. We have heard the call here to have that threshold lower so that they can access that program.

The same, I think, is very true of BDC and EDC. The threshold on these programs is largely out of reach for SMEs. There needs to be more strategic funding that is specific for SMEs. Hopefully, we can see those things possibly reflected in the economic update or coming soon for small and medium-sized businesses.

I want to tell you that we've had the opportunity to travel in our committee. We went to a lot of countries in Asia and we visited Thailand. They had a unique program there called Thailand 4.0. They were talking to us about all of the incredible programs that they have to increase the participation of their SMEs in exporting.

I'm wondering if you've done any analysis on what we're doing here in Canada compared with other countries that are quite successful at having SMEs export, and on where we can fill in the gaps in services to our SMEs.