Evidence of meeting #70 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 uht.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have lots of questions.
Madam Riddell, you're the director. You would have been responsible for drafting this new tax, or your department would have.
Mr. Ives, your title is “expert adviser”. Is that right? You would be giving advice to Madam Riddell. Is that what your role is or was?
Expert Advisor, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I report to Amanda. That's correct.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I was really concerned when you said that you dropped the consultation on August 6, 2021. If I were a minister, and I didn't want people to give me a response, I would drop it in the middle of the summer. On top of that, August 15 was when the Prime Minister dropped the writ for the election, so probably a lot of people didn't pay attention to it.
I don't know how many followers you have, but we're talking about friends and neighbours. A lot of them have been coming to Canada for many, many years, and I don't think they were aware of it, but they are now. Out of these 41 submissions that you got, are they totally public? Can we get a copy of them?
Director, Real Property and Financial Institutions, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I'll take that. No, the submissions are not public. The submissions are given to us. We would need to request an ATIP, for example, and we would have to request the permission of the—
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
“No” is okay; I have only three minutes.
Mr. Ives, you're the expert adviser. Who did you reach out to for expert advice on this new taxation? Has the minister even talked to you guys about maybe coming up with a fix for this? Have you been given direction for that?
Director, Real Property and Financial Institutions, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Again, we're getting into advice for the minister. We are in—
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I don't want the advice. Has she asked you to see if you can fix this thing?
Director, Real Property and Financial Institutions, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
That's between us and the minister. I'm sorry.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Oh, it is. Okay.
Mr. Ives, who did you reach out to proactively to get expert advice to give to Madam Riddell?
Expert Advisor, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
The consultation was laid out as an open consultation. Any interested party could make a submission.
Conservative
Expert Advisor, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
That was not the form of consultation that the government decided to proceed with.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
The government went, “This is just what we're doing, and you guys can—”
Expert Advisor, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
It was announced in budget 2021 that a consultation would be forthcoming, and that consultation took place between the dates of August 6 and September 16, I believe.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Were there any changes to the original proposal based on the advice that Mr. Ives was able to come up with to give you improvements based on those consultations, Madam Riddell?
Director, Real Property and Financial Institutions, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I'm sorry; can you clarify the question?
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
You had an initial proposal. It went out for consultation. You got feedback. Did you change the initial version after you got the feedback?
Director, Real Property and Financial Institutions, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes, the feedback did generate some changes.
Conservative
Director, Real Property and Financial Institutions, Sales Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
We're certainly happy to provide you a copy of the consultation backgrounder as well as the final—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much, Mr. Carrie.
We'll go to Mr. Arya for three minutes, please.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Allen, when Representative Higgins was at the committee meeting last time, he mentioned that he had returned to the United States trade representative and that the trade representative had raised this issue with the Canadian minister. When I specifically asked him the opinion of the USTR and if they agreed that this UHT is in violation of CUSMA, there was no clear answer. What do you say to that?
Executive Director, United States, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
As I said, it has been raised by the administration's conveying Congressman Higgins' concerns to members of the Canadian government at various levels, but so far it has not been raised by the administration as a CUSMA matter.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
If it was a violation of CUSMA, probably we would have heard it by now. Is that correct?