International Trade Committee on March 9th, 2017

[Scott Duvall, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Thanks. This is a great conversation.

One of the things that really bothers me is that what it all comes down to is jobs. How many jobs are we going to lose in Canada? These jobs that we're talking about in the steel industry are very well-paid jobs. That's what bought my house, bought my car, and brought up my family.

However, I want to show you the difference. In the 1970s we had 14,000 people in the steel industry just in Hamilton. Right across Canada, there were about 18,000, and I'm just talking about Stelco. Right now in Hamilton, we're down to 3,000 people, and they aren't all union people. Most of them are non-union people.

The problem is our retirees. They have to worry now about whether they're going to have a pension tomorrow, about whether they're going to have what they've worked for all their lives. They've dealt with this for the last 10 years. That's what we're talking about here. How can we protect our industry? We believe in trade, but we believe in fair trade. In terms of the amount of jobs in the steel industry, if we lose those, then we.... The auto industry counts on us to buy those cars, and there are other manufacturers.

Ken, maybe you can answer this. How do you feel it's going to affect the communities across Canada if the steel industry doesn't make it, if we allow it to go down? I know that right now the people feel they've been let down by Canada, especially in the Hamilton area.

[Ken Neumann]

There are numerous examples across the country of the steel industry's demise. We see it in Atlantic Canada. We've seen some of those places disappear. It has devastated those communities. These are engine drivers.

I was in Saskatchewan where Ipsco is now Evraz, a Russian company. With the amount of revenue that brings, if that company were to leave, it would be a tremendous situation. I've seen the devastation that it's created in Sault Ste. Marie. I worry about the Soo at night because of the fact that this is one of the largest industries. If it were to disappear, it would really have a significant effect.

You just mentioned Hamilton. Hamilton was kind of seen as the Chicago area of Canada with regard to all the steel mills around. It's going to have a tremendous effect. I can't express the disappointment enough. We've been at the front of the fight in regard to the bankruptcy laws, to make sure that workers have some access to their pensions and have the benefits. I know I get emotional sometimes, because it is emotional to have all these people, 20,000 people....

I worked in an industry. It wasn't the healthiest industry when I first started. It's much more modernized today. Those people knew when they were working in those industries that it was also a health risk. The union said that we were going to have some benefits post-retirement. That's now disappearing. When do we need health care the most? The fact is that it's in our senior years when we need medication. These people are now being deprived. In many cases, we're going to send them to their graves earlier than they should be going because they don't have that facility.

That's heart-wrenching. I don't care whether you're a labour leader, the mayor of the city, a businessman, or a CEO. You should be concerned about that. It is devastation.

We've adjusted. We've lived up. We've done the skills training in regard to the upside and downside through CSTEC. There was the innovation of the government of the day, where we had the tri-part of labour, business, and government. It worked great. We were able to deal with that. We were able to train people and to put them into industries where jobs were available, because they were no longer in the steel industry. That has now somewhat disappeared. We've narrowed it down to 22,000 steelworkers. We almost had that many in the Hamilton region alone. It's devastating. The fact is that it doesn't have to be that way.

If you don't have a vibrant steel economy, that is a black strike, a black mark against the country. We need to do everything we can to preserve it, and to make sure that we have dumping protection, because as you've heard from all the submissions, a market economy, that's just not going to work.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

With all the infrastructure projects—

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you. You're time is well up.

I thank all the panellists for coming. It's been a really good conversation here this afternoon with the back and forth.

This is only our second meeting. We're going to have a couple more. If there's anything you folks want to add, or if you want to chime in to our next couple of meetings, and want to know about when we're having them and find out about them, you're welcome to it.

Folks, don't go too far away. We're going to suspend for a few minutes and then we're going to go in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]