Evidence of meeting #2 for International Trade in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rules.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Jacob Mantle Conservative York—Durham, ON
In that situation, we'd see job losses and a loss of investment in the Canadian sector.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
That's highly likely, because the whole objective of being here in Canada is that you can sell into that 20-million vehicle market. If we go down the road of a fractured North American market, you'd be here producing for a total customer base of 1.8 million to 1.9 million Canadians, so it's not as efficient.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
That's the worst-case scenario.
Conservative
Jacob Mantle Conservative York—Durham, ON
Let's move a bit from the worst case. Let's go to a middle-ground scenario, where we end up with some level of U.S. tariffs on Canadian autos. How would that affect the industry?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
It would make it very hard to attract new investments and expand the footprint here. We could hold on to what we have, but it would be costly to manufacture in Canada, even at a low tariff rate, just because of the volume of production. Ultimately, this would mean higher prices not just for Canadians, but for Americans. We've seen, when people have gone to purchase a new vehicle, estimates of price increases of $4,000 to $12,000.
It would mean less production and fewer jobs.
Conservative
Jacob Mantle Conservative York—Durham, ON
If we get no deal and we have some level of tariffs on the Canadian auto sector, does that mean we will see job losses in our auto sector?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
It depends on the tariff level, but it will be hard to produce at the levels we have historically produced at if we are facing tariffs on Canadian production.
Conservative
Jacob Mantle Conservative York—Durham, ON
If we're producing fewer cars in Ontario, we'll need fewer workers to produce those cars.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
That's correct.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
That's the worst-case scenario.
Conservative
Jacob Mantle Conservative York—Durham, ON
Do you think it's important that the EV mandate be dropped immediately, before we get into any negotiations with the United States?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
Yes. It absolutely needs to be dropped for a couple of reasons.
First, there are the economic reasons that we've discussed. The industry is under extreme pressure. A federal mandate that puts billions of dollars of cost on Canadian manufacturers makes absolutely no sense.
Second, we need to work with the United States in this transition to electrification. We've won huge investments into Canada. Canada has a role to play in electrification. To have these extremely divergent policies does not make sense.
Conservative
Jacob Mantle Conservative York—Durham, ON
Thanks.
I have one last question. I understand that billions in U.S. tariff costs have already been paid. Have you received any of that back in remissions?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association
That is a good question. There have been remissions through the supply chain on some of the inputs, for example, such as the steel inputs and so on, so I understand that, yes, remissions have been received there. Automakers are not currently paying tariffs on vehicles they bring in from the U.S., because of the performance-based remission framework.
Liberal
September 18th, 2025 / 4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Steeve Lavoie Liberal Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Hello, Mr. Roy.
My name is Steeve Lavoie. I don't want to offend my colleague, Mr. Groleau, but I'm from the most beautiful part of Quebec, the Lower St. Lawrence, which isn't far from Beauce. I'm the son of a farmer, and I grew up surrounded by hog farmers.
What you said really resonates with me, so I'm going to start by asking you a few quick questions to get the lay of the land.
I get the impression that, for the past 20 or 30 years, it's been hard for pork producers to find a market for their product. Am I mistaken? Has it been more than 30 years?
Chair, Canadian Pork Council
The pork production sector is an open market. In open markets, there are good times and bad times. People don't generally hear about it during the good times.
You asked for short answers, so I'll try to be brief.
Periods of trade disruption affect products like pork, 70% of which is exported.
Liberal
Liberal
Steeve Lavoie Liberal Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Do you have a new strategic plan? The one I found on your website was for 2018 to 2023.
Liberal
Steeve Lavoie Liberal Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Okay, I'm glad to hear that.
You talked a lot about production and processing capacity, but we also hear about how hard it is to open up new markets.
What are the three biggest obstacles you encounter when you're trying to open up new markets?
Can you help me understand the connection between wanting more production and processing capacity and problems finding markets? I'd like a better understanding of the situation.
Chair, Canadian Pork Council
We're trying to get into the best markets internationally. To do that, we need to have processing capacity to add value. That's one of the issues. We need enough workers, infrastructure and investment.
Canada has enough production capacity to do that, but we also need stable international agreements. Without such agreements, we will keep running into issues like the trade agreement issues we have with the United States right now.
