International Trade Committee on June 11th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Ms. Dorval.

Mr. Lavoie, you have five minutes, please.

[Steeve Lavoie, Liberal, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

You can see where I'm going with this: I'd like to go back to the first question I asked. Mr. Winterhalt, you didn't have a chance to answer it, so I'll give you the opportunity to do so.

[Todd Winterhalt]

Thank you very much.

Maybe I'll go in three directions to address your question of how we are helping Canadian companies prepare to diversify and face some of these challenges. First, I'll mention a geographic effort; second, sector areas; and third, programming and partnerships. I may call on Joanne in a moment, as well.

Further to my earlier comments, we have certainly over-invested in many markets outside the traditional sphere for Canadian exporters. At EDC, we now have 13 offices on the ground in Asia, and we're working towards having eight in Europe by the end of this year. That's directly tied to the growth in exports we have supported over the course of the last two years. In the case of Asia, again, we've seen almost 30% growth.

What's interesting is the connection to Canadian companies already on the ground in Asia. Our research shows that over 2,700 Canadian mid-market companies are already invested in and exporting to Asia, and there's real opportunity to help them do more and continue to grow. We look at what's coming in Europe in a variety of new sectors—I'll transition to that in just a moment. They're leveraging CETA in a more robust way, I think, which presents a significant opportunity for Canadian exporters and investors, including in new sectors and segments like defence and security. Last year, like our colleagues at BDC, EDC returned to being able to support Canadian companies in this space. In one calendar year, we facilitated approximately $1.6 billion in defence and security exports for over 60 companies, which indicates, I think, the level of opportunity and growth present there.

To your initial question, another key sector where we're doing things differently is critical minerals. We're supporting the development of critical minerals here at home in Canada for eventual export. That could be through companies like Torngat Metals, a rare earth manufacturer, or Nouveau Monde Graphite in Quebec. There's significant investment in the critical mineral space.

I will also point to artificial intelligence and digital technologies. Along with our partners here, we have invested in Canadian companies like Cohere to help them scale and grow in a way that allows them to take advantage of the international opportunities that are present.

Lastly, I'll touch on a couple of programs. We put a tariff program in place, the EDC trade impact program. It's now been about 16 months in duration. It has delivered about $2.5 billion in incremental support for Canadian exporters and investors through 5,400 transactions—again, mostly for small and medium-sized exporters.

I'll turn it over to Joanne, who can illustrate how some of these small and medium-sized exporters connect to different markets.

[Joanne De Franco]

Thank you, Todd.

I'll share a little story about one of the companies we work with based in Montreal.

They were introduced to an EPC firm in Turkey that EDC has a very strong relationship with. They were a small company. We have since supported them in significant growth so that sales were equivalent to $145 million, between the two entities. It really helped propel their growth. It's allowed them to do more in other markets and to pursue other opportunities.

[Steeve Lavoie, Liberal, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

You spoke earlier about opening offices in Europe, among other things.

Before I forget, I'd like to ask you something, both BDC and EDC. I'm a very visual person, so could you send us a document comparing the situation before 2025 to today's, showing what you've changed, the markets you've opened and the sectors where you weren't previously present? For example, I know there were years when BDC wasn't active in the defence sector, but you seem to be moving in that direction. I'd like to know if there are sectors where people have come to recognize you over the years—sectors where you were not previously present, but are now. There are also overseas markets where you weren't present before and are now. I'd like to have some concrete examples of where you weren't present and are now, because things are changing rapidly.

In closing, since I see time flying by, I have one more request. Ms. Dorval told us that BDC was able to turn on a dime. My question for EDC would be along the same lines.

How long does it take you, from the moment you identify a sector in which you are not present, to study that sector and then offer support in that sector? Does it take three months, six months, a year or two years to turn on a dime, as Ms. Dorval said they can do?

If you could provide this information to the committee, I would appreciate it.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

That would be very valuable information. Thank you very much.

We'll now go to Mr. Simard for two and a half minutes.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Actually, I'd like to come back to that. I recently asked one of your colleagues to provide me with a breakdown by province of the amounts EDC had invested, either through loans or directly. However, there's something else that would be even more interesting to have.

According to the 2025 annual report, support for the oil and gas sector totals $9.3 billion, including $2 billion in direct financing. For 2024, it's $7.6 billion, including $1 billion in direct financing. For 2023, it's $7.3 billion. I won't list all the figures, but your various annual reports do show that the oil and gas sector has received quite a substantial amount of aid. However, in my view, the only sector that has not been affected by the tariff war is the energy sector.

I don't know if you can provide us with a breakdown of the support you provide to the oil and gas sector, the mining sector and the forestry sector. I don't want you to give me the information using codes, because that's incomprehensible to us. At the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, I was given NAICS codes. That gives us an indication, I'll accept that, but it doesn't show the aid provided by sector. If your efforts are focused primarily on the oil and gas sector during a crisis, when that sector isn't the one affected by tariffs, it seems to me that this is a missed opportunity.

I don't know if it's possible for you to provide us with a breakdown of the aid granted to the various sectors from 2022 to 2025. That would give us an idea of how the government responded to the tariffs by sector of activity. Is it possible for you to do that?

[Todd Winterhalt]

Yes, I'd be happy to do that.

I can tell you that the support for the oil and gas sector has traditionally declined following the Government of Canada's decision at COP26 to not allow EDC to support international oil and gas. That number has shrunk.

However, you're correct; it was $9.3 billion last year. The majority of that goes to something called electricity trading support, which is literally the export of electricity from Canada, from Quebec and other provinces, into the United States, as well as to support for oil and gas—in this case, mostly gas exports.

I'm happy to provide a more detailed breakdown for the committee.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

However, it does appear in the section—

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, Humber River—Black Creek, ON]

Thank you very much.

I'm sorry. Go ahead, Monsieur Simard.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

In your report, however, it does appear in the section on oil and natural gas.

[Todd Winterhalt]

Yes.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Next, we have Mr. Arnold for five minutes, followed by Mr. Fonseca.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I appreciate the opportunity to be subbed in on this committee. I haven't been here before.

I want to touch on a couple of points that I've picked up on over the last few weeks here. One is skills training, and the other is infrastructure requirements here in Canada.

I was recently at a presentation regarding marine transportation requirements here in Canada. It was pointed out that over the next few years, Canada is only going to be able to meet about 40% of the anticipated needs in the shipping sector for heavy tonnage captains, crews, marine pilots and so on. If this is such a shortage that's been identified by industry, do either of your organizations play a role in that, whether it be developing private training facilities or private-public partnership training facilities?

Do you have any understanding of the identified drastic shortage that we're facing?

[Véronique Dorval]

We are conscious of some of the shortage. I wouldn't attach it particularly to that sector. I think of other trades. For example, welding is a big challenge in Canada currently, and there's a lack of skilled trades. We are supporting a number of entrepreneurs that are schools for trades.

If I take the broader question that you are talking about in terms of infrastructure related to the marine sector, I can tell you that we're currently going through an exercise of better understanding the defence sector—broadly defined here—including commercial marine vehicles, to understand where there are significant gaps versus the stated objective in the defence industrial strategy. This is in order to understand where BDC, which is there to support mainly small and medium-sized businesses, can help develop that part of the value chain.

We're conscious of the challenge. We are mapping it to better understand where there are gaps so that we can then pinpoint our action.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

Do you have anything further to add, Mr. Winterhalt?

[Todd Winterhalt]

I would add that, with EDC's mandate, we really are focused on helping to generate and increase international trade. We can support those firms once they're ready to export their training program. We would be more connected to the build-out of—

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

No. What I'm getting at is, even if those companies are ready to export, the infrastructure and the workforce to be able to make those exports aren't going to be in place. We simply cannot meet them.

I want to point to another example. My riding, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, covers over 400 kilometres of Trans-Canada Highway and about 450 kilometres of CPKC main line, the main transportation corridor for western Canada to the port of Vancouver. It's not the only one, but it's certainly the largest one.

An Order Paper question I put forward asked what the federal government had invested or spent on planning or engineering for highway improvements through the national parks, which are 100% the responsibility of the federal government. The response for what they had spent over the last 10 years was basically zero for a project that had already been under way. There have been no new projects proposed or even the design or engineering phase started on projects that are going to take at least 10 years to be done.

We see highway closures near my home once or twice a week because of the poor highway conditions over the speed of semi-trailers. When these include a fatality, the highway is shut down for four to six hours. It's completely closed with no detours available. It's been estimated that those closures through the Rogers Pass cost the Canadian economy about $3 million per hour.

The government has now said that the armed forces are no longer going to take part in avalanche control, but they have put no plan in place to replace them. We're going to see highway closures of unknown lengths at $3 million per hour killing our economy.

I want to know what your organizations are doing to assist in making sure that we have the trades, the businesses and the industry ready to build that infrastructure that we need if we're going to be able to export the goods that you're helping entrepreneurs develop.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you, Mr. Arnold. Maybe next round you can get an answer.

Mr. Fonseca, go ahead, please, for five minutes.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to our officials from BDC and EDC.

I'm so glad that you work so well together and that you support our exporters and the goals that we're trying to achieve.

This can be answered by EDC and BDC. How important is that whole-of-government approach in helping Canadian businesses succeed internationally?

Who would like to answer that?

[Todd Winterhalt]

I'm happy to begin.

I would say that it's essential. These two organizations work together, I think, in a fairly seamless way. We look at where the priority is for each organization. At EDC, it's largely mid-market, larger Canadian companies that are looking at taking advantage of international opportunities. I'll let my colleague explain BDC a little bit.

It's a bit of a continuum. You start with BDC support at the smaller end, maybe it's VC or seed capital as they're beginning to grow. As they start to scale, they then begin to look at international opportunities.

Also, keeping in close contact with our colleagues at CCC and in the trade commissioner service is absolutely critical so that we're not duplicating efforts and we're making sure that we are each delivering on our primary mandate.

[Véronique Dorval]

From a BDC perspective, what we see is help for entrepreneurs to develop a strong Canadian base and get to a level where they are ready to export. We help them develop strategies on how they export and where they should export. We have that handshake and that reference program, so when an entrepreneur needs specific support related to exportation, we send them to EDC.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you.

We had a very ambitious goal years ago. It was about doubling our trade with the non-U.S. markets, and we were able to achieve that. Now we've set another ambitious goal: It's redoubling that trade over the next 10 years with markets outside of the U.S., be they in Europe, the Indo-Pacific or other high-growth markets. In terms of being able to hit that next goal, have you built that into your strategic plans? Is that part of your strategic plans? How will we get there?

[Todd Winterhalt]

Yes, it absolutely is. We're currently in the process of developing our five-year corporate plan for 2026 to 2031, which absolutely takes direction from the Minister of International Trade, through our statement of priorities and accountabilities, to have that as one of the key deliverables for EDC.

That then directly ties to our investments in new markets in terms of boots on the ground and new programming to help take on different risks than we maybe have taken on in the past in hopes of reaching that target, which, I would agree with you, is an aspirational one, but one that I think is within the realm of the possible.