Evidence of meeting #102 for International Trade in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was hamilton.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Kyle Seeback
Answer very quickly, please, because we're already 15 seconds over time.
Vice-President, External Relations, St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation
Mr. Chair, this is more of a political question. I would leave it to the member to ask the federal government.
Conservative
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Thank you.
I'm going to go back to Mr. Weller to pick up where I left off with some complicated questions.
In the middle of the pandemic or after the pandemic, we learned that maybe these long supply chains weren't such a good idea. I know that Canada and the U.S. have been talking about nearshoring and friendshoring.
What has Canada done—I know various reports have come out on this—and what should Canada be doing to help build that ecosystem, if that's what you call it, that would help us keep things under control and not be so out there when it comes to natural disasters, pandemics or whatever could hit us?
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Kyle Seeback
Colleagues, I'm going to interrupt. The bells are ringing, so we need unanimous consent to continue. I would suggest that we continue with this final round of questions for about a minute and a half, and then we adjourn so that people can go to vote.
Is that the agreement of the committee?
That's great.
Founder, Naviga Supply Chain Inc.
Through you, Mr. Chair, I'll speak to what needs to happen, if that makes sense, and what isn't really happening yet, and I will keep this, again, in the context of small and medium manufacturers.
A lot of the problems we've gotten into in the first place come from—and this is not to denigrate our manufacturing community at all—a lack of executional knowledge. What I mean by that is that, as the old saying goes, you have to be effective before you can be efficient. We have to relearn how to be effective, and the challenges against that—and the pandemic is what exposed this—are that we have a brain drain going on. We have several companies that have retiring owners and executives who have knowledge. That knowledge is not necessarily coming in behind them; it's leaving with them. We have to start educating a new generation of manufacturing on how to be effective and how to be productive.
I'll give you a short analogy. I've heard many people, many learned people, say that the biggest problems from the pandemic were just-in-time manufacturing. I couldn't disagree more. That is an example of the lack of knowledge that I am speaking to, because, with just-in-time, people associate that with saying you need no inventory.
What it means is that it's a waste to have inventory that you don't need. It's not a waste to have what you need to produce. When we use terms and when we highlight programs and everything else, and if it's a checklist on some consultant's checklist—I'm a consultant, and shouldn't say that—without understanding the balance behind it, that gets you in trouble every time. You have to be effective before you can be efficient.
Many people around this table have talked about collaboration. That is key as well. In the sector that I'm particularly concerned about, they are very isolated. They're not well connected. They're not online in terms of a conversation, not at all like our tech community, and building an ecosystem there where they can start to leverage common knowledge. An ecosystem that is similar to those that have been built by the tech community and sponsored by government would be next level for bringing us to where we need to be in order to be really competitive, in my opinion.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Kyle Seeback
Thank you very much.
I want to thank all of the witnesses for appearing today.
I have a couple of notes for everyone. The next three meetings are on the supply chain study, and the committee will begin the study on seafood import policies on May 21. If you have a witness list to submit, please get it in by May 6 at 4 p.m.
The meeting is adjourned.