International Trade Committee on Oct. 30th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Good afternoon and welcome, everybody, on this windy Monday in Ottawa. Anybody who has an umbrella still working is very fortunate. Most umbrellas got ripped this morning.

My name is Mark Eyking. I'm chair of the Standing Committee on International Trade. We are embarking on a study of multiculturalism and international trade, and this is our first meeting.

Welcome to our witnesses. I met you before we started. We're going to have a couple of meetings on this topic, which is very important because our country is made up of many different cultures and nationalities, and there's a connection, of course, between the people in this country and trade.

Without further ado, we'll get going. We'll give the witnesses roughly five minutes and then open up dialogue with the members.

We'll start with the Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce. Go ahead, sir.

[Wojciech Sniegowski, President, Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce]

Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you very much for inviting the Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce to speak to you today.

The CPCC is dedicated to the promotion, development, and expansion of business, trade, and investment opportunities between Canada and Poland, as well as the development of relationships and networking opportunities with other ethnic business organizations in Canada in support of our members.

The Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce was incorporated on June 21, 1994. This date is significant because it coincided with the arrival of the last large wave of Polish immigrants to Canada. Between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, some 100,000 Polish people settled in Canada. Since then, economic activity throughout the Polish community has flourished. Canada's Polish community now numbers almost one million, and the latest Polish-Canadian business directory lists about 5,000 direct-to-consumer businesses. This directory does not include the many more Polish Canadian manufacturing, construction, and transportation companies that operate on a business-to-business basis.

Unfortunately, the continuous prosperity of these companies is currently in doubt. The limited availability of skilled workers is a serious hindrance to many of them. While Canada's immigration policies are theoretically designed to address workforce shortages, existing programs are insufficient when it comes to addressing the current crisis. Organizations such as ours regularly raise these concerns in our discussions with public officials, but the Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce does not believe in raising a problem without also offering a solution.

The CPCC is well connected to a large network of businesses around the world. By way of this network, we can help identify sources of qualified skilled labour for potential immigration to Canada. In particular, there are thousands of qualified Polish and other eastern Europeans who currently reside and work in the United Kingdom. As a result of the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing Brexit negotiations, many of those two million EU citizens feel that their future is in question; however, the situation presents a great opportunity for Canada. A prudently designed immigration program would assist businesses in Canada's Polish community as well as other Canadian businesses in gaining access to this highly educated and trained English-speaking workforce in a timely manner. The Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce is ready and willing to serve as a credible partner of the Government of Canada in facilitating such an initiative.

It is important to underscore that throughout the history of immigration to Canada, there have been many examples of community organizations being engaged in the process, including by assisting immigration authorities in the processing of thousands of immigration applications. I was actually sponsored by the Canadian Polish Congress to come to Canada.

In one example that I was involved in personally, shortly after the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981, the Canadian Polish Congress entered into a sponsorship agreement with Canada's immigration department to facilitate the immigration of people fleeing persecution under the then Communist regime in Poland. This program was extremely successful. The Toronto branch, just one branch of the Canadian Polish Congress that helped administer it, successfully sponsored around 30,000 people between 1987 and 1991.

We would recommend that such a program, or a similar version of it, be considered today as an easy way of filling the urgent skills gap in our labour force. We are deeply invested in the continued well-being of both Canada's Polish communities and the Canadian business community as a whole. That is why we stand ready to do our part in securing a skilled workforce that will benefit Canadian businesses, strengthen the economy, and expand international trade.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, sir.

We'll move over to Cyclone Manufacturing.

Go ahead. You have the floor.

[Andrew Sochaj, Cyclone Mfg. Inc.]

Thank you.

I have a presentation, if you would like to have it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

We'll circulate it for you. Is it bilingual?

[Andrew Sochaj]

No, it's in English.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Okay. We'll have it translated and we'll distribute it.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

It will be translated later, but could we have a copy of it now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Yes, go ahead—if that's okay with the committee.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Is that okay with the committee?

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

I am the only one who speaks French.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

I'm sorry to interject, Mr. Chair, but it's unfair to those on the committee who require a French copy. Can we get it after?

Is that fair enough, to have it after the meeting?

[An hon. member]

Those are the rules.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Okay. We don't have unanimous consent.

Sorry about that, sir. It's no problem. It happens all the time. We'll get it translated. It's not a problem at all.

Go ahead. You have the floor.

[Andrew Sochaj]

Thank you.

Cyclone Manufacturing was founded in 1964. It entered into the aerospace business in 1978. We are a vertically integrated company as a first-tier and second-tier supplier to all major aerospace customers. At the present time, we have 360,000 square feet of floor-space. Altogether, we have more than 100 CNC machines.

We are, I would say, one of the biggest privately owned companies in North America at the present time. We supply components all over the world: in America, or the United States, 23%; in Europe 32%; in Canada 37%; and in Asia 8%. We supply as far as Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, South America, Brazil, and Europe, so basically all over the world.

Our major customers are Bombardier; Boeing; Triumph; AIDC; Israel Aerospace Industries, IAI; Embraer; Avcorp; ShinMaywa in Japan; Stelia; Saab in Sweden; Zodiac; MHI, Mitsubishi, in Japan; Spirit in the U.S. and France; FACC in Austria; and General Electric.

Again, I can talk about the European customers, which would be Bombardier, FACC, Saab, Stelia, and IAI in Israel. In North and South America it would be Bombardier, Lockheed Martin, Spirit, Triumph, Embraer, and Avcorp. In Asia it would be AIDC in Taiwan, MHI, AVIC, and ShinMaywa.

We produce components for all passenger airplanes, such as Airbus A320, A330, and A350; Boeing 777X, 737 MAX, and 787; Bombardier CRJ, CL-350, Global Express 5000 and 6000, Global Express 7000 and 8000, C Series, and Q400; Embraer; Gulfstream; Lockheed Martin; and so on.

We have four facilities in Ontario. Three facilities are in Mississauga and one is in Milton. A fifth facility is in Poland. Altogether it's 360,000 square feet. At the present time, we have 750 employees. We are expanding at roughly 15% a year. At year end 2017 we shipped $98 million Canadian. Next year we have to ship 15% more, so we have to hire 15% more employees, with 15% more floor space and 15% more equipment.

I believe we have more special processes—we have proof by our customers—than anybody else here in Canada at the present time. We are producing components like spars for a Dreamliner, 10 metres long, and small components as well, for the A350 Airbus and many other airplanes.

I'm going to skip some of this, I think. I have just a few minutes.

The majority of our components are mainly wing assemblies, like ribs. We have a contract for the A350 Airbus,14 spoilers on each wing. You'll see those on the landing. All of the wing tips on the 737s are produced at Cyclone.

Recently we have won many contracts for doors, especially from Boeing. Right now on the Dreamliner 787 and the 737 MAX 9, the pilot escape doors are made by Cyclone.

We are also making flight control systems. All the ribs produced for the 8050, leading edge and trailing edge, are produced at Cyclone.

We have major contracts on the Bombardier Global Express 7000. We are producing a leading edge for that airplane.

Going back to the question of what our problem is, it's skilled labour. Some 90% of our employees were not born in Canada. I wasn't born in Canada either; I arrived in 1978. Ten years later, in 1990, I bought the company.

We have 25 employees. Right now we are producing as much in two days as we used to produce in a year—and thank you very much; Canada is a great country, and I really appreciate it—obviously with Canadian government help. Without it, we couldn't do it.

What I can say is that we are working together with Poland right now. I set up a corporation in Poland, and I can see that regulations in Canada are really favourable. We have much fewer regulations than in Europe. I don't see any problems. I have to educate them in Poland. I have to educate customs. I have to educate everybody. We are breaking ground: we are something new.

Thank you very much. I appreciate and thank you for your invitation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, sir. We're glad you came to this country. Your company has contributed greatly to our economy, and you have quite a footprint around the world. Thanks for coming.

We're going to move now to the British Canadian Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

Go ahead, Ms. Terry.

[Bernadette Terry, The British Canadian Chamber of Trade and Commerce]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and committee members, for the invitation and the opportunity to speak on this important issue today.

The British Canadian Chamber of Trade and Commerce was founded in 1951. It is based in Toronto, but we're just about to open an Ottawa branch, so it is expanding across the country. They currently have 100 members, and like my colleague here, they work very closely with several international partners, including the British American Business Council. It includes British chambers in the U.K. and U.S., which is a total of 30 chapters, plus the Council of British Chambers of Commerce in Europe, so it's a significant network.

In addition to being the founding member for the Ottawa chapter, I also have my own company, BTI Global Innovation. We provide consulting services to governments and individual companies for their international trade expansion and also for setting up and expanding in Canada.

With that, I'd like to hand over to my colleague, Karima-Catherine. Karima is here representing her own company, and also the board from the Toronto chapter.

Thank you.

[Karima-Catherine Goundiam, Red Dot Digital]

Hello, everyone. I'm also an immigrant. I arrived in Canada in 2000.

I founded my company, Red Dot Digital, in 2014. We provide consulting services to any type of industry. We recently expanded to France and to the U.K. We also have a year-on-year gross of about 50%.

I am also on the board of the British Canadian Chamber of Commerce and am co-chair of membership, so I'm here in that capacity as well.

That's it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

That winds up the presentations.

Before I go further, I'd like to recognize Jerry Sherman. It's good to see you here, sir. You're a familiar face around the Hill. You're from Embassy Connections Canada.

We're going to start a dialogue now with the MPs. First, we have Colin Carrie from the Conservatives for five minutes.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here.

I have two questions, so what I'm going to do is just read them out, and then maybe get the panel's opinion on them.

You mentioned skilled labour challenges. Are there any recommendations you could make to the government with regard to immigration policy? Are there ways to improve the ability of ethnocultural communities to trade within different regions by improving our immigration policy? That's question one.

The other question is with regard to free trade agreements. I'm just wondering what your thoughts are. Do these free trade agreements help the ethnocultural communities facilitate trade around the world, and should we be pursuing more free trade agreements? If so, are there countries that you could recommend that would be priorities?

With that I'll be quiet. Maybe we can start with Mr. Sochaj and move across the panel.

[Andrew Sochaj]

As I mentioned, Canadian regulations are quite simple. We don't have any issues here in Canada with import. We are exporting 95% of our.... Actually, if we include Bombardier—it's also export—all of our products are going for export.

As far as I can see, the major problem we have right now is Europe. I think a comprehensive agreement will help us. Once it's ratified.... Officials in Poland, for example, are very passive. They don't take any chances. They are afraid to be blamed for something that goes wrong. Their regulations are not very clear. They are subject to interpretation, and many times they change depending on which government is in power. I think if we have that agreement ratified, it would really help us in doing more business with Europe.

[Wojciech Sniegowski]

As for immigration, I don't have a particular program in mind because I'm not too familiar with all of the programs right now. I know there are many different ones, but most of them, as far as skilled trades are concerned, involve an invitation from the particular business. That process is expensive. I think it's currently $3,000 just to get a confirmation of employment.

We have a big transport company that is in constant need of drivers, for example. It said that it wasn't going to spend $3,000 for somebody who, the next day, after immigrating to Canada, leaves for another employer. That makes no sense. It's a big company that hires about 300 drivers, so to them, this expense would become really prohibitive.

What I have in mind is that the chamber and other chambers—not necessarily only the Canada-Poland Chamber—assist in this process and get this evaluation themselves. I can give an example. The Polish Congress administered such a program, and it was extremely successful. As a result, as I mentioned, we had so many businesses that were created based on this wave of immigration. I don't want to pillage Great Britain when it comes to skilled trades, but there is uncertainty for those people. They don't really know what the rules are going to be after the Brexit negotiations conclude, so I think that creates a short window of opportunity to try to entice those people to come to Canada. We could be very helpful with that. We would, obviously, have to sit down with the department and talk about what's possible. We don't want to propose something that is not acceptable to the immigration department whatsoever.

I think there is a way of trying to work this out that benefits Canada. It's not just about Polish businesses, obviously. I've talked with members of the provincial Parliament and with Minister Sousa, and all of them confirmed that this is the number one issue that they're confronted with by businesses wherever they go around the province. I have to assume that you, ladies and gentlemen, have encountered similar problems, with business people talking to you about a shortage of labour.

I can give you a simple example. I have a—

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Maybe I'll get the example later, because I think I have less than two minutes left for the other two.

[Wojciech Sniegowski]

Sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

I am sorry, but you don't have time for another question.