International Trade Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Make it a brief answer, Mr. Buckle, please.

[Martin Buckle]

There are great advantages in that and the stability Canada has compared with the issues we have down south, where tariffs can change whilst the ship is on the ocean. Canada has great advantage there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, you have two and a half minutes.

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

Mr. Buckle, do you share the U.K.'s concerns about the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism? They've pointed out that there have been thousands of lawsuits.

[Martin Buckle]

I don't think so. The business people I know hate going to court. They hate it for its costs and its distraction from business. It ruins relationships. It's not why anyone gets into business. There might be a few strange people who get into business so that they can have fights. Most people want to do business because they're excited about doing business, about customers and about markets. I don't see that.

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

Perhaps it would be simpler to abandon that approach? There are also excesses. There are cases involving certain multinationals, which have more money than some third world countries and employ extremely aggressive legal teams. Wouldn't it be simpler to rely solely on a state-to-state mechanism? That way, if a company is truly wronged, it goes through its own country, and then it becomes a diplomatic issue as well.

[Martin Buckle]

There's definitely an opportunity to make access to equitable trading much easier for people. I think that good, well-written frameworks are part of that. You're right: Big companies have in-house lawyers that can do this, and they want to keep busy, so they might do more than small businesses. A good framework can avoid that for small businesses. That's an important part of what we want in any trade agreement.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Mr. McKenzie for five minutes, please.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Melville-Gray, I would like to ask if you are aware of whether Prime Minister Carney has brought up the issue respecting pensioners. We understand that he has a close relationship with the British Prime Minister. Is there anything happening there that you're aware of?

[Edwina Melville-Gray]

Our understanding is that at present, there isn't. Of course, it's only been a year that he has been in his position as Prime Minister, and there have been many things happening in the world.

In the visit that's coming up with the Australian Prime Minister, we have asked that he engage with the Australian Prime Minister and perhaps jointly ask Mr. Starmer to assist.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Have you received a positive response? Do you expect this to happen, or is it simply a request that's outstanding?

[Edwina Melville-Gray]

That's our request. As yet, we haven't received a response on it.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Mr. Fulton, or perhaps Ms. Babcock, when the question of our Canadian cattle industry's capacity to export to the U.K. in the event that the non-tariff barriers are addressed came up last week, the minister suggested that our capacity may hinder our ability to export to the U.K.

Could I ask you to comment on that? I told him in response that there are a lot of cows in my part of Alberta.

[Tyler Fulton]

I jump at the opportunity to answer that question, because it's one we get commonly as well.

The best way to think about it is that more than 200 products come off a beef cattle carcass, but only some of them are actually in demand in Canada.

We already export about half of what we produce, either in live cattle or in the form of beef or beef cattle products. Quite simply, many markets are complementary, and it is ironic that we are able to extract better value for variety meats—products that have a very low price because of non-existent demand here in Canada—and add value there. We can get the market incentives through other cuts to keep growing our herd and not have to impact domestic consumers. It's actually complementary, and it has the effect of reducing, over the long run, the cost to consumers.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

If I'm understanding you correctly, a beef animal, once processed, produces quite a range of different products that may have appeal to different markets, so the ability to sell in different marketplaces gives the opportunity to increase the value from any single animal. Do I understand that correctly?

[Tyler Fulton]

Yes, and this was much more concise than what I said. Yes, that's right, absolutely.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

I'm just trying to make sure we're all clear.

Mr. Buckle, could I ask if your chamber has a view on what agreements should follow from here?

This committee was advised last week, and others have received the news as well, that the intention of the government at this time is to continue the TCA. There's also been some talk about a new bilateral agreement directly between Canada and the U.K. that might be more specific to our trading relationship with the U.K. beyond the CPTPP terms. Does your chamber have a viewpoint on that?

[Martin Buckle]

Yes, a few years ago—obviously post-Brexit—there was, as people have mentioned, an idea that the continuity agreement was going to be a temporary stopgap. We were involved with the U.K. negotiators, diplomats and politicians in expressing our viewpoint on what we would like to see in the agreement.

As does everybody else, we all want to throw 101 little bits and pieces into an agreement. A personal one is that, in Ontario, it's illegal for me to call myself a qualified professional accountant. That strikes me as bizarre and unnecessary. Things like this would certainly be good to put in there.

I mentioned earlier that the dairy industry in the U.K. is keen to see Canada as a market; the car industry is as well. There are lots of things that still need to be settled, and people today have mentioned a bunch of very important issues that need to be settled.

I hope that both governments work towards a settlement on those ideas and that we get some progress on the bilateral agreement.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to our witnesses.

We have run out of time.

There are a couple of comments I need to make.

We've had discussions. As everyone knows, any amendments to Bill C-13 will need to be in by 6 p.m. this evening.

The minister will be coming for the first hour on Thursday to speak to Bill C-18. The second hour will follow with clause-by-clause.

For Bill C-18, on Tuesday, February 10, we will have witnesses and officials, and we will do clause-by-clause of Bill C-18 on Thursday, with a deadline for amendments of Tuesday, February 10. Any suggestions for witnesses on Bill C-18 should be submitted to the clerk as soon as possible.

One other bit of business is that, this morning, the House approved our request for travel to Mercosur countries, so there will be ongoing discussions on this issue as well.

Thank you again to the committee.

Mr.—

[Jacob Mantle, Conservative, York—Durham, ON]

On committee business—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes.

[Jacob Mantle, Conservative, York—Durham, ON]

—I just have a comment.

As members of the committee will see, last week we received some partial disclosure with respect to our production order for a USMCA/CUSMA review.

I would ask the chair to review what we received. In my opinion, it is not in accordance with our production order.

I ask that you to take a look at it, and we can discuss it at another time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes, I will, absolutely. Thank you very much.

All right. I move adjournment.

Thank you all.