Evidence of meeting #19 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 general.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
Richard Martel Conservative Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here today.
Much like my colleague who mentioned it before me, I too don't understand why we're considering the budget appropriations the day before they are to be passed. Personally, I find this to be disrespectful of our democratic institutions.
I'd like to come back to the fact that Invest in Canada reached out to 54 million business decision-makers. I understand that you've spoken to a number of people. If so, how do you explain the fact that despite all those interactions, Canada was not even invited to participate in key initiatives like last week's meeting led by the United States and the Indo‑Pacific nations?
11:30 a.m.
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Invest in Canada Hub
I will refer that question to my colleagues at Global Affairs, as that's not an area we deal with.
11:30 a.m.
Chief Trade Commissioner, Assistant Deputy Minister, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
On the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, both the Prime Minister and Minister Ng spoke about this last week. Obviously this is a U.S. initiative. We have very close ties already with the United States, and a very integrated economy with them through CUSMA and with the Indo-Pacific region through the CPTPP. The American initiative is something we'll continue to follow with interest, and we'll continue to work closely with them and through an integrated economy.
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Richard Martel Conservative Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
Given the supposed ties between Canada and the United States, I find it a bit peculiar that Canada was not invited to participate.
In the departmental plan, you state that Invest in Canada activities have “increased investor interest in Canada by 90%”. I'd like to know what that means in more concrete terms.
11:35 a.m.
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Invest in Canada Hub
As part of our promotional campaigns we do surveys before viewers see the campaigns or the advertisements, to gauge their interest in investing in Canada originally. Then they see the campaigns. They interact with the campaigns, and then their interest is gauged again to see if the campaign has increased their interest in investing in Canada. We saw that 90% of the people who viewed the campaigns were more interested or had significant interest in investing in Canada.
As I mentioned, this can take quite a long time to turn into an investment, depending on the stage of their growth plans at their corporate headquarters, so it could take 12, 18, 24 months to make that investment decision, but at least we are starting to raise awareness of Canada as an investment destination early on for foreign investors.
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Richard Martel Conservative Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
If we want to attract new investment to Canada, of course we need to provide winning conditions for businesses: fewer regulations, a better tax environment, and reduced time and costs for new projects.
What's the government doing in concrete terms to improve the regulatory and tax environment in Canada?
11:35 a.m.
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Invest in Canada Hub
This is outside of the scope of Invest in Canada, as we're focused on promoting and providing services to companies. We don't have a regulatory or policy framework at Invest in Canada.
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Richard Martel Conservative Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
Would it be possible to know what major foreign investments you have in the pipeline for Quebec?
11:35 a.m.
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Invest in Canada Hub
I can definitely provide further details in writing about our pipeline. We're very excited. There's a lot of interest in Quebec, and we work very closely with our partners at the provincial level, who have an excellent investment promotion team and are really focused on driving investments into Quebec. We can provide that in writing to you.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
Wilson Miao Liberal Richmond Centre, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses for today's meeting. It's great to see some of you today.
I'd like to direct the following question through the chair to Mr. Alexander.
Can you tell us a little more about trade and investment responsibilities? What are some of the highlights of this year's departmental plan? How will they contribute to the minister's mandate?
Thank you.
11:35 a.m.
Arun Alexander Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy and Negotiations, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Perhaps I can begin, but then I'll invite Ms. Wilshaw and Mr. Christie to add on, because we work on promoting international trade investments together.
There are many highlights this year. The key one is the continued implementation of the CUSMA. We've been working very closely with our Mexican and U.S. colleagues to implement the CUSMA and to make sure that small and medium-sized enterprises and those led by under-represented groups in particular are made aware of the benefits of the CUSMA and are more engaged in international trade. That has been a key highlight.
We've also been working with our partners to address key issues like climate change and forced labour in a very collaborative manner, and the strong relationships that we have built with the United States and our Mexican friends have been very helpful.
Maybe I'll just turn to Mr. Christie to talk about it more globally as well.
11:35 a.m.
Bruce Christie Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Trade Negotiator, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Madam Chair, we continue to work to fully implement the trade agreements that we've negotiated and brought into force over the past few years. As my colleague, Mr. Alexander, mentioned, those are the CUSMA and the CPTPP, which, as you know, is a very ambitious comprehensive free trade agreement with 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
We're now, in that regard, looking to expand the agreement to accept new economies to join. Our focus right now is negotiations with the United Kingdom, which has expressed an interest in formally acceding to this trade agreement, and we're looking at those negotiations as providing more of a precedent and a model for future accessions from other parts of the world.
As I'm sure you know, we've also received heightened interest from other economies around the world, and we have received formal applications to join the CPTPP from Taiwan, China and, more recently, Ecuador. We know that other countries, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region, like Thailand, Indonesia and Korea, are also very interested.
On one front, we're continuing to implement that trade agreement to make sure Canadian producers and exporters take full advantage of the benefits provided to them through that agreement, while at the same time expanding the opportunities.
On top of that, Madam Chair, I would say that we continue to have a very active negotiating calendar. We're negotiating with the block of 10 ASEAN countries. We're negotiating a free trade agreement with Indonesia. We're also negotiating a more permanent free trade agreement with the United Kingdom, and negotiations continue with other important economies for Canada.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Wilson Miao Liberal Richmond Centre, BC
Thank you.
As you have mentioned, Minister Ng was also in Thailand recently, meeting with APEC. She announced that Canada has submitted a formal request to launch negotiation for Canada's accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement.
Can you please provide us an update, maybe open to everyone on the floor here, on recent developments, provide some background information on the DEPA, and expand on the benefits that joining the DEPA would bring to Canadians?
11:40 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Trade Negotiator, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
As you mentioned, in May of this year, Canada formally notified the DEPA parties, the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement parties, of Canada's interest in formally acceding to this agreement. I'm specifically referring to New Zealand, Chile and Singapore.
It is a stand-alone digital trade agreement. It's really a novel trade policy instrument that's positioned to support digitally enabled commerce around the globe but also contributes to a broader dialogue on a range of technology issues of interest to both industry and consumers here in Canada, particularly to allow our small and medium-sized enterprises an opportunity to engage in this increasingly enlarged digital space.
Building on the CPTPP digital trade e-commerce chapters, the parties I mentioned earlier are looking to expand this trade agreement to take on new members. Canada has formally notified the parties of our interest in acceding to the agreement. We're looking to work with the DEPA parties to establish a working group, hopefully, in the weeks ahead. We know there are several other economies that are interested in acceding. We'd like to get ahead of the queue in that regard.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much.
We'll now move to Monsieur Savard-Tremblay for two and a half minutes, please.
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would like to come back to Invest in Canada. How would you spend the amount you have requested in the 2022‑23 main estimates? In short, how is that amount justifiable?
11:40 a.m.
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Invest in Canada Hub
Our budget of about $33 million has stayed consistent to what it was last year. We have allocated approximately 78% to achieving our core responsibility in the three areas of focus: promotional mandate, working with investors and providing services to partners to help them increase their investment attraction efforts. The remaining balance goes to support services, similar to other government departments, to help support the corporate service function that is required.
Within that envelope, a large portion goes to the promotion efforts, which include launching the campaigns and the content series advertisements that are shown to foreign investors. The other portion goes primarily to salaries for employees who are working directly with global investors.
11:45 a.m.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
How can the budget be the same given that the situation has changed? Last year, we were in the thick of the second wave of COVID‑19. Then came the third wave. How could actions be budgeted in exactly the same way when the situation is quite different today?
11:45 a.m.
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Invest in Canada Hub
Most of our advertisement happens digitally, so we have the ability to continue efforts. Whether it be through the pandemic or coming out of the pandemic, our promotional efforts continue. We still see a high level of interest, if not an increased level of interest over the past year from investors looking to come to Canada. We saw a slight dip at the beginning part of the COVID pandemic, but increased interest has gone up over the past 18 months.