International Trade Committee on June 11th, 2026

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

Prime Minister Carney, Minister LeBlanc and Minister Sidhu have all spoken in terms of these goals. We want to increase our foreign direct investment by a trillion dollars over the next five years and double our non-U.S. trade over the next 10 years. The way to do that is what we were doing years ago when we first looked to renew NAFTA, which became CUSMA. We did it with a team Canada approach. That means all levels of government, all parliamentarians and a whole-of-government approach. That served us very well.

I'll say that there are parliamentarians who talk down Canada, who keep talking about the negatives. Do you think that helps in terms of providing our stakeholders what they need to be able to succeed and to speak to their counterparts?

[Todd Winterhalt]

What we hear from our exporters, our investors and our customers is really the need to have all methods of support available to them to be successful. It is a very competitive environment. It's not only Canada that's looking for new markets. Many different nations are looking for new markets. We will be successful only if we work together, I think, across the tools that are present here.

I would also introduce the opportunity for the Canadian private sector to lean in and be part of that journey. At EDC, fully 85% of every transaction we do is done in partnership with colleagues like BDC, but also with the Canadian financial institutions and with the maple eight. It's an entire country objective to compete in a very dynamic environment.

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

Yes, under this existential threat, we understand that we need to be united as a country and united as a government—and I say “as a government” in a non-partisan way.

I do feel and what I'm hearing is that we need to.... The successes we've had, we can build on. To undermine those in any way by trying to undermine the government's approach to getting this very important trade, be it CUSMA or other trade deals around the world, would be a negative thing.

[Todd Winterhalt]

I think I would say that there's a real opportunity to go further together rather than separately.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll go on to Mr. Chambers, please, for five minutes, followed by Mr. Naqvi.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Following my colleague's question about giving you an opportunity to answer the question that was asked at the end of the last round, do you have any comments on infrastructure for my colleague?

[Todd Winterhalt]

Thank you.

Yes, at EDC, our focus on helping Canada develop its trade-enabling infrastructure is really in those critical projects and parts of the infrastructure backbone: roads, rail, ports, airports and things of that nature that tie directly to exports. That's our primary mandate and function. We continue to support that very actively at EDC.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you very much.

We heard in your opening testimony, Mr. Winterhalt, about EDC's mandate of providing insurance, lending and direct capital to firms.

Ms. Dorval, how would you classify BDC's mandate?

[Véronique Dorval]

Our mandate is about supporting entrepreneurs to start, grow and scale, with a focus on the Canadian operation of those businesses and ensuring there's a healthy entrepreneurship ecosystem.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you very much.

If your focus is primarily on Canadian operations, how does the new fund that you've been given to distribute, which seems to focus on exports, fall squarely within your mandate?

[Véronique Dorval]

I'm sorry. I'm not sure which fund you are referring to.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Was that not your pivot to grow fund?

[Véronique Dorval]

Just to re-explain what pivot to grow is about, Pivot to grow is a program that helps companies that are affected by tariffs or that uncertainty look at what the next best step for them is. That's not focused on exportation, but it can include exportation. It can include things like relooking at your strategy: Where do you want to be present? What's your product? What's your operational efficiency? It can be quite broad, and it could include an aspect of exportation.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you very much. That sounds to me a little bit more like consulting services. Is that fair?

[Véronique Dorval]

Pivot to grow has two aspects. There's the aspect of advisory services—consultation—and there's the aspect of financing also related to that.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Winterhalt, do you provide consulting services as well?

[Todd Winterhalt]

We do not.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Okay. That's where there seems to be a bit of a delineation, as I understand. You'll forgive me, because sometimes mandates are unclear in some of these organizations, and sometimes they seem to overlap from time to time. It would be entirely conceivable that both organizations would serve the same client. Is that correct?

[Véronique Dorval]

It's possible we serve the same client. We would serve them on different needs. BDC will help them start, grow and make a strong Canadian starting point. EDC will help them with the export part of their business.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Do you have a good understanding, between the two organizations, of where you might overlap? Have you done relationship mapping between some entities that you frequently deal with? I'm just trying to get an understanding of how you might operate in the market together.

[Todd Winterhalt]

I'm happy to address that one.

Absolutely, we do. We have standing meetings and engagements between our teams. There was also a committee put together called the BETR committee, which has us and a number of other Crown corporations on it, where we have open discussions around customer needs, where there are gaps in the market and how we make sure that we leverage each other's strengths as opposed to duplicating efforts.

The one area where I would say we often work together is in the equity space. EDC is more of a later-stage equity provider. As companies are ready to scale up and take advantage of new opportunities, we could complement existing BDC investment in Canadian companies, for example.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

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

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Welcome to the witnesses. Thank you very much for making yourselves available for two hours for this very important conversation. You have my apologies that I wasn't here for the first half of the meeting due to some community events. I may be asking a few things that you may have answered, but hopefully it will be with a different take and you'll be able to still give some more information.

Through your presentation, I'm sure my colleagues are more aware of the roles of EDC and BDC in terms of how you support Canadian businesses. My colleague Mr. Fonseca was talking about the stated mandate for the government to double our non-U.S. exports. I recognize and know that you, as your respective organizations, are really stepping up to the plate to help facilitate that for Canadian businesses.

Can you give us some specific examples of what changes you have made in your operations, in your offerings and in your programs? Could you speak to some of the factors specifically? I know that in defence there's a lot of work going on to help the government meet the mandate and assist businesses to be able to pivot away from the U.S. or to add other non-U.S. jurisdictions as export markets as well.

Perhaps we'll start with EDC and then BDC. Thank you.