Evidence of meeting #84 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was poland.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Whoa. You're way over time. You're at six minutes. I have never seen six minutes yet on this committee, but it was a good dialogue and we're going to have to move on.
Mr. Fonseca, you have the floor.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Tedesco and Ms. Barycka. The Italian and Polish communities have a very deep and rich history here in Canada and have been here for well over 100 years—150 years—so, from the beginning. Each of those communities, the Italian Canadians and the Polish Canadians, is over a million people.
I know that the low-hanging fruit has always been NAFTA, and maybe those relationships within North America with the United States, where a lot of business has been done. Now, however, we have CETA. CETA has come to fruition, and we have this tremendous opportunity with two countries, Poland and Italy.
How have you disseminated all of that information about CETA, all of the opportunities that exist? Have your members hooked into it to look at how we can do more trade now with Italy and with Poland?
I'll start with Ms. Tedesco.
Director, Trade Department, Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario
I think I mentioned briefly before that we've organized CETA seminars for our members here and for companies and member companies that are located in Italy. We liaise with local business associations in Italy. Through them we were able to invite their members to web seminars. We connected from here, from Toronto, with some of our members who have been involved in CETA dealings and are experts, such as legal firms and other members who know specific aspects of the trade agreement and are able to give presentations and information to the companies in Italy. This is how we operate.
We had two seminars, one in Milan and one in Varese just outside Milan, one in June and the other in July. In September we had a seminar here in Toronto for our local members.
October 30th, 2017 / 5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Director, Trade Department, Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario
There is a lot of interest, especially among the Italian companies. They really see Canada as a place to do business now, more even than in the past. The message we try to give them is to come to Canada, that it's a gateway to North America, that Canada is the place to start.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
That's great. A number of years ago we saw Ferrero Rocher open a huge plant in Brantford, Ontario. It brought a lot of workers and a lot of investment. We want to see more of that, and a vice versa, going over to Italy with Canadian products and services and companies.
I want to hear from Ms. Barycka.
Board Director and Youth Committee Chair, Polish Canadian Business and Professional Association of Windsor
At our business dinners we often have ambassadors from Poland to Canada. We had a trade commissioner from the embassy once before who also made presentations about best practices in trading with Poland and where to start, which is usually the main question, especially in Windsor. You can imagine that there aren't that many people who know how to do business with Poland right off the bat.
From my association's perspective, we focus locally. That's usually how we promote that information. We ask the Polish embassy to do presentations for us.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Thanks. I always say that people buy from people. We have a tremendous person—someone whose alma mater was actually the University Of Windsor—Sergio Marchionne, who heads Fiat Chrysler. He studied in Toronto and at the University of Windsor and now is over in Italy running this global company. We have to tap into this diaspora, which is all over the world, to create these trade relations.
Ms. Barycka, I like what you've done with your sister city Lublin. We in Mississauga have a sister city in Japan and we've been able to attract more than 20 Japanese businesses to Mississauga. Much of it has to do with having that sister city and having those relationships. As I said, people buy from people.
We thank you for the work that you do as you continue to promote Canada and promote trade, and now with CETA. As I said, we don't want to leave it dormant. We want to make sure that CETA flourishes. If we can be of service, we would like to hear from you how we can better help the different diaspora chambers of commerce to succeed.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Your time is up. It's a good statement, though.
We're going to move into our second round.
Madam Lapointe, you have the floor.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Ms. Barycka.
It was said earlier that your city, Windsor, was twinned with the city of Lublin. People from Poland have told us that they were experiencing labour issues.
Does the fact that you are twinned with another city make it easier to engage in promotion with the Polish? Does it encourage you to invite Polish people to come work here, in Canada, and to immigrate here?
Board Director and Youth Committee Chair, Polish Canadian Business and Professional Association of Windsor
I'm sorry. I didn't understand the question.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Okay.
Does the fact that you are twinned with Lublin, in Poland, create ties? That country has universities.
Does this make people from Poland want to immigrate to Canada, especially those from regions experiencing labour issues, according to what people who appeared before you told us?
Board Director and Youth Committee Chair, Polish Canadian Business and Professional Association of Windsor
Being twinned with Lublin creates a type of conversation that other cities may not have directly with another city in Poland, but what that exchange currently focuses on is actually the university exchanges—the student exchanges, the scholar exchanges, and the professor exchanges. We've had Ph.D students write an entire book on Polonia and Windsor, and they did it at the University of Lublin. These are the types of tangible examples I can give you right now.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you.
How many of those students will remain in Canada?
Board Director and Youth Committee Chair, Polish Canadian Business and Professional Association of Windsor
From what I understand, those are student exchanges, so they—
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
So no students want to stay here. Is that correct?
Board Director and Youth Committee Chair, Polish Canadian Business and Professional Association of Windsor
Exactly.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
You said that members of your chamber of commerce don't only do business with companies from Italy, but also with companies from China and from other European countries.
I would like you to give me more details on that. As I understand, your chamber of commerce is working with other organizations.
Director, Trade Department, Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario
We're part of a group of local associations here in Toronto—organizations like ours that do business with their respective countries. There's the Toronto Chinese Business Association, the Federation of Portuguese-Canadian Business & Professionals, and the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce. We collaborate with them in order to get our members to meet locally, but also to do business in these countries, India and China.
In the early 2000s we organized a delegation to China in collaboration with a Chinese business association here and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. We have ways to make sure that we have the necessary networking elements and association in all those countries to put together delegations. It's always important to partner with companies or associations that have a real presence in a foreign country, because it will give you a more direct presence there and a better opportunity to connect with the right businesses there.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
You represent companies from the Toronto region more. Canada has a large Italian population, especially in Montreal. Are you sharing your best practices with other Italian chambers of commerce across the country?
Director, Trade Department, Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario
Absolutely we do, yes.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Okay.
My colleague talked about the opportunities presented by CETA. Do you have any suggestions for us to help people take advantage of those CETA opportunities?
Director, Trade Department, Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario
I think the important thing is to provide as much information as possible, but also to bring companies into the foreign market so that they can directly experience and gain a sense of the opportunities that there are in a foreign country to develop business. That's what we also like to do—organize trade delegations and business delegations with companies here and take them over to Italy, and if necessary to Europe, to get a direct sense of the opportunities.
I believe we can do this easily because of our presence in Europe and our working relationship with businesses and organizations here, such as EUCCAN, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Canada, that operate in Toronto.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you.
Italy and Poland are very beautiful countries. I would have certainly liked to have been in Ms. Ramsey's place and gone to Italy.
