International Trade Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2020

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Digital trade and e-commerce have been incredibly important. That is why, earlier today, I was so pleased to be with the Prime Minister to make an announcement about CanExport. We have pivoted the CanExport program, CanExport for SMEs in particular, so that businesses get up to $75,000 to be able to do things like attend a virtual trade mission or do those virtual business-to-business meetings. It's helping them to get the support they need to become more digital, not only to be more competitive here at home and to pivot their businesses during COVID-19, but also to access those opportunities globally.

Tonight, I start a virtual trade mission, a first of its kind, to South Korea. There are many businesses, including women entrepreneurs, who are part of this mission, looking to explore and grow into a market. We're going to do this virtually and digitally. We're going to adapt, and the CanExport program is going to adapt in the same way to help our businesses take advantage, I hope, of the opportunities that I hope will continue to exist, but they will just do it a little differently.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Minister.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We'll go to Monsieur Savard-Tremblay for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister Ng recently announced a $12-million investment in the Canada United Small Business Relief Fund. Can we have the details regarding the amounts already allocated? How many businesses per province have already received funding? Are there a limited number of applications per province?

The Canada United Small Business Relief Fund is managed by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the national network of chambers of commerce. The goal of the fund is to help small Canadian businesses with their recovery efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why was the Ontario Chamber of Commerce assigned to manage the $12 million? Why wasn't the management of all of this money divided up across the country?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

That is a very important question. I want to assure the member that the $12-million investment we have made, working through the chamber of commerce network in all provinces and territories, including Quebec, is there to provide additional support for businesses to apply for a grant, up to $5,000 per business, to help them support local businesses.

It will help businesses to deal with some of the expenses that they may have had to incur to buy PPE or to do some modifications in response to health measures or even to go digital. There is always more work to be done, and I'm very pleased that we will continue to do that by listening very intently to businesses. That's what this is. This is a program where we're partnering with all the chambers across the country so they can help businesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you, Madam Minister.

Mr. Blaikie, go ahead for two minutes.

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

Thank you very much.

I was curious. I know the minister mentioned in her opening remarks some of the supply chain challenges that Canada has faced. Of course, there have been actions to try to ensure that some of the things we need most during the pandemic are being manufactured here in Canada. There's concern by a number of Canadians about the investor-state dispute settlement clauses in the various trade agreements to which we are party and about Canada's financial and legal exposure under those provisions.

I'm wondering if that is a concern for the government. Is it something that's been part of the discussions around setting up domestic supply chains for PPE and other medically necessary supplies?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

During this period we have made sure to create more resilient supply chains. Certainly we saw early in the pandemic the need for items like PPE, ventilators and so forth.

I guess the work is in two parts. On the one hand, it is to make sure there is resilience in the supply chain so that Canadian companies can depend on that. That's where the trade commissioner service has been absolutely extraordinary. They have been steadfastly working on problem-solving and ensuring the inputs into the Canadian supply chain. Here, made in Canada is what we have stood up by helping Canadian companies and asking Canadian companies to be a part of the COVID-19 solution so that—

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

Are you concerned at all that those efforts might expose us, under ISDS provisions, to international trade tribunal proceedings?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

We have always been very careful and we continue to be. I said earlier—

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

Could you highlight some of the measures that the government has taken in order to shield us from exposure under such provisions?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Well—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Minister, Mr. Blaikie's time is up. I don't know but maybe you could give him some of that information offline. We have you for five more minutes here and Mr. Hoback is the next questioner at the table.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Minister, it's great to see you.

The Conservatives wanted you for the full two hours. I think you're going to have to give the chair some chocolates or something, because she wanted you here for only an hour. If you give her some chocolates, I'm sure she'll let you stay the whole time.

Minister, I want to talk to you about EDC and our trade commissioner service and just looking forward.

We have a structural change that has now hit the world, and that's COVID-19. How are we going to do business in this new world? One of the concerns I have with EDC, BDC and CCC is whether they have reassessed this new world. For example, in EDC, have you gone through your lines of credit country by country and re-evaluated the risk? Has the risk cost gone up in such a way that businesses in Canada now have to pay more for that risk? Can you give us some insight into that?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be here with you. I'm sorry that we aren't spending more time here together.

Suffice it to say that during COVID-19 it has been extremely important to make sure that our Crown corporations and our assets that are there to help businesses are helping businesses. This is why I created what I call the BETR team. BETR stands for business export recovery table and brings BDC, EDC, the trade commissioner service and CCC together to really work together to look at how we can best—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

When will we start to see some reports from this group? When are we going to start to see some goals, some ambitions or some ideas, so that small businesses can start to say, ”This is where they're going and this is what I need to align to.”

Do you have some timetables as to when we're going to see some action there?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Well, it's a working table.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Fair enough.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

It's actually part of the operations. What we try to do, just as the Prime Minister has done in putting small business and export and international trade together, is to create that better synergy so that we are working as team Canada. I think that's what Canadian businesses are asking of us. I'm thrilled with the leadership that my deputy has been providing, together with the Crown corporations—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude. I don't mean to be disrespectful either, but I do only have five minutes.

When we look at EDC and the loans they had outstanding when COVID hit, are we going to see a large writedown from EDC in loans that for one reason or another weren't fulfilled, or in business that wasn't fulfilled? Do we have a huge liability sitting over there right now? Do you have any indication of what that looks like?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

What I would say about EDC during this period is that they have done incredible work. They've done incredible work because they—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

That's not the question.

I agree with you. They do great work, the same as the trade commissioners. In fact, my concern is that we don't have enough trade commissioners in the right countries. What I'm really concerned about is the liability that EDC takes on when they start underwriting businesses in other countries. When you get hit with something like a pandemic, there's got to be a writedown. There's got to be a hit.

I'm kind of curious as to how big that hit is and what it's going to look like. What are we going to do to mitigate that going forward? How do we make sure our businesses don't end up paying for it going forward?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Well, I think we all will agree that what is absolutely important is that they are firing on all cylinders right now to help our businesses through this period. EDC, as you know, is an arm's-length Crown corporation. It makes those judicious decisions together with its board. We are working very closely to be sure that those considerations are such that it really supports Canadian exporters at this critical time, because I think that what's needed is to be able to support our exporters during this time.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I agree. They are arm's-length Crown corporations, but in the same breath, they're in a pandemic. They're designated with a certain task: to deal with Canadian businesses in a fashion that they normally don't do, so they do take a lot of direction from the government. They have in the past.

I don't say that's a wrong thing. I think that might be a good thing, considering what we were facing and what our businesses were facing, but I need them to pivot now to take care of these businesses in the foreign markets. When I look at the new markets that are evolving, are they equipped? Are they ready to do that? Do they have a sense of where the priorities should be and what sector should be the priority? Also, do we have the lines of credit established or re-established in those current markets to take advantage of, and do Canadian businesses understand that they are available?