Evidence of meeting #8 for International Trade in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was sector.
A video is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
That's an area that will need to be explored at length.
Will I get another turn, Madam Chair? If so, I better wait.
Liberal
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Will I have an opportunity to speak later?
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Very well.
I'll wait until I have more time for my next question.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Mr. McLinton, I want to follow up on the question of TRQs and their allocation, because it's something I know dairy producers and processors are paying close attention to.
There has been some question about how they have been working with respect to CETA. Do retailers acknowledge the pressure and the challenge that these trade agreements and the expansion of foreign market access have meant to Canadian producers?
Vice-President, Grocery Division and Regulatory Affairs, Retail Council of Canada
Thank you for your question, Mr. Blaikie.
Canadian retailers in this space, when we're talking about supply-managed goods in particular, are grocery members who are highly supportive of Canadian producers and Canadian farmers. They sell, and consumers ultimately demand, Canadian-made farm products because they are world class. Our members are very, very supportive of that. What we're talking about here with regard to the government's review of tariff rate quotas of supply management goods under deals such as CUSMA is making sure that Canadian consumers benefit from this as well.
If the purpose behind these trade agreements is to get better prices for Canadian consumers, you can't allocate duty-free quota directly to consumers, but you can allocate it to the next best thing, or the ones closest to consumers, and that's retailers. We're not saying anything other than make sure that retail gets its fair share. Historically, retail had been ignored as part of getting access to duty-free quota.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Would you agree that, beyond price, consumers also see choice as a virtue, and that we might interpret some of the market access provisions not just as...? Actually, they're about producers in other countries expanding their markets. They have very little to do with Canadian consumers. Would you agree that we might also interpret this as a way of trying to provide a little more choice to consumers as opposed to uniquely lowering the price of dairy products in Canada?
Vice-President, Grocery Division and Regulatory Affairs, Retail Council of Canada
Absolutely. Canadian consumers demand choice. Quite frankly, we live in Canada, so in certain seasons it is more challenging to produce certain types of products, in particular, fresh fruits and vegetables and that sort of thing. Canadian consumers have come to expect the freshest produce and the freshest other types of food to be available to them year-round.
It absolutely is about getting the most competitive prices to consumers and increasing consumer choice. That is why retailers need to have their fair share of quota under the review that Global Affairs Canada is conducting right now.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Is there openness on the part of retailers to administering their TRQ under conditions so as not to compete with Canadian products that are on the market today?
Vice-President, Grocery Division and Regulatory Affairs, Retail Council of Canada
That's something that would be really interesting. I think that one would warrant further discussion.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you. I look forward to some of that discussion.
Mr. Powell, I listened with great interest to your presentation. I'm a construction electrician by trade. I'm quite interested in the industry for that reason. What I'm hearing here is that the advantage from your organization's point of view is that it largely maintains the status quo for your industry. Is that a fair assessment?
Director, Government Relations, Canadian Electricity Association
First of all, thank you, of course, for your ongoing support for line workers across Canada.
The most important thing for us was to maintain the status quo, but I think there are opportunities here for it to provide certainty, as we move forward, for more more opportunities for relationships in the future. There is a market in the United States. As we said, there are benefits to both sides. That's not just in terms of providing electricity but also enabling variable renewables like wind.
Take Manitoba as an example. The new Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line will allow Minnesota to have more wind and use Manitoba Hydro to be basically a battery to backstop that. That's a cool opportunity. We all live in the same space. That speaks to the value of an interconnected grid.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Beyond ongoing certainty in the relationship, is there anything in particular in this agreement that we should be looking to in terms of creating the type of strategic opportunity that wasn't there in the old agreement?
Director, Government Relations, Canadian Electricity Association
The energy side letter speaks to that more forward-looking part. The biggest thing for us was continuing the relationship. To everyone's credit, that has been continued.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you very much.
I'll turn to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
When you talk about smoothing border flow, which I think is in everybody's interest, essentially that means hiring more people to do the work. I take it that's something you would be supportive of, despite the fact that it is an increased public expenditure. What other measures do you think ought to be taken in order help with that?
Senior Vice-President, National Affairs and Partnerships, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
In terms of border flow as well as the whole process you have to go through in order to get a product across the border, I think we could look at ways to be more efficient around that. Right now you have things like HS classifications. If you continually import the same thing all the time, why do you always have to put down every single classification every time? Things like that are small but they can have big impacts if we can find ways to streamline that kind of paperwork for smaller companies, and larger companies, for that matter, although they often have better access to the folks who can help them with that kind of thing.
Those are the kinds of things we're talking about. It's not just about the physical border. That's definitely there, but it is also about the paperwork and the processes you have to go through to get your products to that border. That's an important aspect of it as well.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Better processes and more public servants, I'm glad to hear it.
Liberal
Senior Vice-President, National Affairs and Partnerships, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
I didn't say that.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
Thank you very much.
Mr. Powell, I was meeting recently with representatives from the auto sector, and they raised the concern about higher electricity rates in Ontario. Apparently, in Ontario, the rates are approximately 25% higher compared to Ohio and Michigan, and almost 75% higher compared to Texas.
Why are electricity rates higher in Canada compared to the United States?
Director, Government Relations, Canadian Electricity Association
It's worth remembering that Canada is not just one electricity market. There are 13 different markets. If you were in a province that has a different source of fuel mix, more hydro, then you might see lower rates than in other places. In other places, the rates might be higher than in Ontario as the case may be. Each province has made policy choices over the course of the last number of decades about how it wants to roll out its grid, and how it wants to provide electricity now and into the future.
We encourage government to look at those areas, not just now but into the future, that will reduce barriers to our members operating, and providing as low a price as possible to consumers. That looks at things like reducing regulatory barriers and cumulative impact.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
You said that Canada is a net exporter of electricity to the United States. What can be done to increase cross-border electricity trade to reduce those prices for consumers across the country?
