International Trade Committee on Feb. 9th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

I'm going to go to the Conservatives now, and I'm glad to see my friend Earl Dreeshen here. It's good to see you. We worked well for farmers when we were on the agriculture committee.

I guess you're splitting your time with Mr. Ritz. Mr. Ritz, you're up first.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for your presentation here today.

I was reading that this program started on January 5, 2016, with $50 million. There was one just before that; it had a different name, but it was still $50 million. What was the name of that one? I tried to remember. I remember putting it in play—

[Michael Danagher]

It's the same program. This was announced by the Prime Minister in March 2015 as part of the budget announcement, but the program itself was launched—

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Yes, but there had been ongoing programs like this before this was reannounced. There have been years of these types of programming out there.

With the new name and the new pot of money, I was wondering if your mandate changed as well.

[Michael Danagher]

The terms and conditions were approved by Minister Freeland. The mandate was to assist SMEs, so that's not changed.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

How closely do you work with EDC? Are you filling gaps that...? You're maybe more nimble than they are. Are you into countries they don't serve? Is there a good parallel between the two? You're both under Global Affairs.

[Michael Danagher]

Absolutely. We have a very strong, ongoing relationship with EDC, with Canadian Commercial Corporation, and, in fact, with the Business Development Bank of Canada.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

And AgriMarketing?

[Michael Danagher]

And AgriMarketing. Elise will be meeting tomorrow with our counterparts responsible for the program, so the collaboration is very close.

In response to an issue one of the members has raised, as a platform we want to make sure we don't provide too much confusion for our SME clients. They want to be talking to the people that they need to talk to and getting the service they need as soon as possible.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Do you make house calls? Do you actually go to some of the shows and set up a booth so people know you're there?

[Michael Danagher]

Absolutely. For our trade commissioners across Canada—95 of them, situated in 17 cities—their whole working day is about house calls.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Exactly. Good. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Mr. Dreeshen is next.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today.

My experiences are basically on the agricultural side of the equation, and in ag marketing.

I had the opportunity to go to London with former minister Ed Fast and the former prime minister. We brought along 30 or 40 small businesses to meet and speak to distributors who were moving into Europe. We tried to make sure there was information there so that they understood things, strange things like container size, on-time delivery, distribution networks, and that type of thing.

There were so many of them there, and most of the products.... From the Maritimes there were a lot of different fish products that were being manufactured and moved on, and they wanted to know what was happening there. They were trying to position themselves for three or four years down the road when all of this was going to take place.

Perhaps that came more under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's AgriMarketing program, but it is nevertheless a way of getting a small group of folks to be able to understand just what is taking place. I think that's an important aspect of it, and it's something that we can continue to look at.

My concern, of course, is how we measure success with this program. There are various benchmarks, and I read through some of the introductory information about what had taken place from February to May of 2015. We have metrics there from Statistics Canada.

What is it that you are looking for? What kind of markers have you set down to see what you can expect in the future?

[Michael Danagher]

Thank you for your question.

The guidelines in the program require that each applicant report on their success at the time they make the claims for the expenses they've incurred, and they can do that sequentially. For example, they can include one trip to a market where they've been approved for four trips. They can claim it at that time. We would expect some reporting on each occasion they claim. We feel that this is an occasion for them to provide an update about people they may have met, such as a potential partner.

As I mentioned in the presentation, we get informal feedback. We're in good contact with many of our applicants and have developed a relationship such that they tell us as they go. More formally, at the conclusion of their project, and at one-year and three-year intervals following that conclusion, we receive a more structured report from them. At that time we determine whether in fact exports have been achieved as a result of their activities.

Quite frankly, we're a long way from seeing what the financial return is on this program, but we have several precedent programs, so we're fairly confident it will be positive.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, Mr. Dreeshen.

We're going to move over to the Liberals.

Mr. Fonseca, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

With the uncertainty that we've been seeing over the last number of weeks—a month or so—south of the border, have you been encouraging those who are coming forward to look at other markets? I know that 89% are still doing their trade with the United States, but are you encouraging them to look at other markets? Have those who are top-heavy exporters to the United States come forward with any concerns? Are they looking for your advice in terms of opening up to other markets?

[Michael Danagher]

Thank you for your question.

As a trade commissioner, we don't tell companies which markets to explore. They develop the business case. We can provide them with information in terms of where their market might fit, but ultimately the decision and the risk is theirs. We continue to receive applications of interest from all markets. The U.S. continues to be, I would say, the leading single market, and it's a very popular market overall.

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

Since we're going to be signing CETA with the European Union, as companies come forward, shouldn't you be encouraging them to look at that agreement? They may not be thinking about it, but wouldn't that be something that you should do in terms of a proactive approach?

[Michael Danagher]

Very much so. In fact, as I mentioned, we're working with the provinces on CETA outreach. We've just concluded a number of sessions in Atlantic Canada and the Prairies over the last few weeks. We've had a presence there with our trade commissioners, and they're promoting the CanExport program. We expect that will result in a number of applications.

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

Thank you.

Finally, how do you benchmark yourselves—not internally, but externally—in terms of what China's doing, what India's doing, what European nations are doing, and so on? For similar programs, how do we compare?

Do we do that? Do you benchmark? Do you look at best practices?

[Michael Danagher]

We do. In fact, we monitor it on a regular basis. When we were looking at the program initially, we included full analyses of programs from countries like New Zealand and Australia.

We're aware of other programs as they emerge, and we're not above looking at their good suggestions, their good ideas, and quite frankly, their success stories. Most of these programs practised by our competitors, based on their own evaluations, are successful.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I have a question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Yes, Ms. Lapointe.