Evidence of meeting #97 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 mining.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
Toronto's a mining town. Effectively, it would slowly cease to be a mining town with significant economic implications, not just for the city—
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
10:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
—but for the province, as well as for the country.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Okay. That's a concern I have here. We put in all these things that are supporting this progressive agenda, but what we've really done is we've taken the competitiveness factor out of our sectors here in Canada, and these are the sectors that we want to take and promote around the world because they're doing things right. When we do that, they end up in other jurisdictions that maybe don't care as much.
Do you think the scales are tipping too far one way and we're losing our competitiveness, and the result might be that in three or four years down the road, we're going to see a declining investment here in Canada, and the TSX losing that mantle of being the place to go to for capital for the mining sector, and actually maybe it will be London or Mexico City?
10:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
It's possible. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not an expert in gender-related trade issues, but I can tell you from a hard competitiveness standpoint that tax implications, other competitiveness, economic implications are probably greater drivers that I'm more familiar with, which would be a rationale for a company to relist somewhere else.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
I have a mining company; I actually build tooling for a mine. There are no mines being built in Canada. So I'm looking at it and saying that all my customers are in South America or in Africa. Why would I stay in Canada?
10:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
I would say two things. One is that those service supply sectors don't just build new mines. We have 77 metal mines currently operating in Canada. We have oil sands mines, we have non-metal mines, diamonds in the north, etc. There is still significant demand for service and supply sector business in the Canadian mining industry. Whether a larger portion of that business could be new mine developments, I think the answer to that question is yes, but that's a compelling reason to remain in Canada for now.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Again, that would be an area where the market has matured. It can't grow if there are no new mines coming into strength.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
We'll have to end it there. Another committee wants this room in about three minutes and I don't want to get in trouble with the next committee chair.
We had a very good dialogue today.
Mr. Marshall, do you have a very quick comment?
10:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Economic and Northern Affairs, Mining Association of Canada
I'd underscore one thing very quickly. There's apprehension amongst the Canadian mining industry about Canada's competitiveness as a place to do business. It's not just a market reality. We've seen prices increase year over year, for two years consecutively. We've seen other jurisdictions attracting more mining investment than Canada has. We're hoping that will turn around, but we attribute that to policy-driven investment uncertainty, business uncertainty. As I mentioned earlier, we're hopeful that as some of these large decisions come forward, our constructive engagement in those spaces has been heard. But we feel like there's a great deal at stake, not just for the industry, but for Canada as a whole.
10:40 a.m.
Senior Fellow, Canadian International Council
I can't address everything that you said, but I would like to say one thing. What I'm advocating is not for Canada to set the benchmark on gender in free trade agreements. Canada has a lot to do itself on the gender agenda. We don't have pay equity. We don't have universal child care. We are not the gold standard ourselves. What I'm talking about is negotiating together with our trade partners an improved performance on gender equity.
The Pacific Alliance itself is ahead on this agenda. They have women's economic empowerment forums. They themselves are pursuing this. Gender equality is an agenda item of the Pacific Alliance. The reason that I think it's doable in the context of this FTA negotiation is because we share a priority to improve our respective performances on gender equality.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Thank you. That wraps up our day. It was a very good day. We'll see everybody next Thursday. For the panellists, we will have a report in the upcoming months, and you will have an opportunity to look at it when it is done.
The meeting is adjourned.