International Trade Committee on Feb. 25th, 2020

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

How many of those, give or take, are owned by women?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

I don't have that statistic with me.

I think we can generally say a lot of enterprises, in particular a lot of small enterprises are operated and owned by women. When I look at how important that is, when we're talking about certainty, what CUSMA allows, it's very important for cross-border movement of goods and people and for a reliable and robust supply chain.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Will having gender equality brought into this particular agreement help women grow when it comes to trade?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

I think we can look at the kind of statistics that exist and lots of studies have been done by many organizations, including McKinsey, which show that the addition of women to the workforce and getting us to gender parity will add trillions of dollars to GDP globally.

Therefore, I'm very pleased to see that there's not only a gender lens but also an indigenous peoples lens to this because both are economic comparatives. We're going to grow the economy and we have people fully participating in the economy and that is about diversity and inclusion overall.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Ms. Bull, as Ms. Anderson mentioned, when it comes to indigenous people and indigenous women in particular, how would this agreement help them? What kind of support do you think the government should provide so that women are able to participate and take equal advantage of CUSMA?

[Tabatha Bull]

We don't have specific stats on indigenous women who export, but in a number of our interviews, we did find that the women-owned businesses are exporting more than men's, and given that indigenous businesses export more than the average non-indigenous business, we see that indigenous women will stand to benefit more from this agreement.

I agree with Bridgitte in that because there is a lens both on indigenous and on women, on a gender lens, there's a double opportunity for those women. Currently we have seen some great support out of ISED for women entrepreneurs. I think that needs to continue, but I would suggest that we specifically set aside funding for indigenous women entrepreneurs as well.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Ms. Anderson, you mentioned B.C. lumber issues that come up from time to time and on this particular agreement, are you aware that Susan Yurkovich, the president of the BC Lumber Trade Council, supports this agreement?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

Yes, we had Susan Yurkovich from COFI at one of our events not that long ago. She was speaking in support of it, yes.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Will it help the B.C. lumber industry once we sign CUSMA?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

Yes, and I will go back to the comments I made to the other committee member as well, to the minister, that we need certainty and so we would like to see a negotiated agreement but we recognize that there is a provision here in CUSMA that is important as well.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

That's chapter 19?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

It's chapter 10.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Chapter 10 is the new one. That's right.

You said we don't have enough industrial commercial space in Vancouver. I come from Surrey, and Campbell Heights is there. This is a gateway for trade.

How should we deal with this as a region so we can accommodate the companies that do international trade?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

I highlighted the critical shortage of industrial land, which is unique to Vancouver. I think it's going to take collaboration and partnership to be able to address this situation, unlock that land and ensure there's growth in the region overall. We need leadership on this. We need leadership, really, from all three levels of government on this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Mr. Savard-Tremblay.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Do I have two minutes left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have two and a half minutes.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

I don't really need any further clarification, so I'll give up my speaking time.

It's all clear so far.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Mr. Blaikie.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I may be asking you to repeat yourself, in which case I do apologize, Ms. Anderson.

On the question of softwood lumber in this agreement, could you elucidate once more how you think...?

My understanding was that this agreement doesn't really pertain to the softwood issue. I'm wondering if you could help explain what aspect of the new agreement you think does apply and how it might be useful to the Canadian softwood lumber industry.

[Bridgitte Anderson]

My understanding is that it preserves the original dispute settlement provisions for anti-dumping and for countervailing duty cases and strengthens the panel process for the state-to-state dispute. Chapter 10, which was previously known as chapter 19 of the original NAFTA, maintains for the Canada and the U.S. a binational panel review mechanism. We were pleased to see that, but this is an ongoing issue, and there are ongoing challenges, not only in British Columbia but in Quebec and in Canada overall. The forest industry in Canada is an important economic generator, so we really do encourage having a deal in place.

This is not a perfect deal. We know that trade agreements are not perfect and that compromise was required, so we are pleased to see that provision staying in place, but we really encourage governments to move ahead to find a negotiated settlement.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

On softwood specifically, the hope is that the strengthening of the panel formation system might prove helpful. Is that fair to say?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

We would hope that it proves to be helpful and look at it as perhaps a temporary measure, but we're looking for a negotiated settlement as soon as possible for certainty, for sure.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Okay, so we definitely need to go above and beyond the deal in order to—

[Bridgitte Anderson]

We would like to see a negotiated settlement.