Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning. On behalf of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in the committee's consultations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.
Canada's life and health insurers are very active internationally and are strongly supportive of the TPP.
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, the CLHIA, is a voluntary non-profit association that defends the common interests of member insurers. Member companies account for 99% of Canada's life and health insurance business. Our industry contributes greatly to the country's economy and protects over 28 million Canadians with a broad range of products that provide financial security, including life insurance, extended health coverage and retirement solutions.
In Canada, in 2015, the industry employed more than 148,000 Canadians and paid more than $6.6 billion in taxes, and $8.4 billion was paid in benefits to Canadians, 90% of which went to living policyholders. We hold over $760 billion in assets in Canada, 90% of which are held in long-term investments.
Internationally, Canada's life and health insurers are very competitive. Three of Canada's insurers are among the largest 15 life insurers in the world and have operations in over 20 countries. These international operations are supported by over $800 billion in invested assets and generate more than 40% of total premiums.
Canada's insurers are working hard to expand their business in TPP markets. The TPP will bring greater certainty for our business relationships in these markets and provide important guidelines for increasing trade.
For Canadian insurers with global operations, the agreement represents a valuable opportunity to develop international standards. Given the market size covered by the TPP, the agreement has the potential to be used as a benchmark for future free trade agreements.
There are many areas of the agreement that we expect will be beneficial. In particular, we expect that the TPP will reduce barriers to entry, improve regulatory transparency, and increase market access. The agreement recognizes the important role of financial institutions in maintaining economic stability and maintains the ability of policy-makers and regulators to act for prudential reasons. The industry also welcomes the inclusion of mechanisms to facilitate and improve regulatory co-operation among the TPP countries, protection of the cross-border flow of business data, and commitments on the commercial operations of state-owned enterprises, SOEs.
The TPP formally recognizes the importance of streamlining regulatory procedures and seeks to increase the predictability and transparency of the regulatory process. Aside from the agreement to provide advance notice of proposed regulations, parties have also committed to providing a commentary period for regulations, with a corresponding consultation mechanism. Such measures should discourage TPP members from using regulation, without proper justification, as a means of restricting market access.
The e-commerce commitments are also welcomed by our industry. We rely on the secure and uninterrupted flow of data across borders for any number of business functions, including underwriting, client services, product development, and market research. The transfer of data quickly and securely within and across markets is now standard business practice. The TPP includes rules that will protect the digital economy by limiting restrictions on the cross-border transfers and broadly prohibiting the localization of servers.
The coverage of state-owned enterprises is an area where the TPP breaks new ground and is widely welcomed by our industry. Many key markets in the Asia-Pacific region are home to state-owned enterprises with commercial operations. Once in force, the TPP will ensure that the commercial operations of these SOEs are transparent and fair, thereby ensuring a level playing field for the companies with which they compete.
To conclude, I would like to thank you again for the opportunity to address you this morning and to share the views of the Canadian insurance industry.
Thank you. I'd be happy to answer questions.