International Trade Committee on Sept. 24th, 2026

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

That makes good sense to me, absolutely.

Similarly, the west coast tanker ban from Bill C-48 continues to be in effect. One of the strangest things that I discovered about that bill is that it doesn't actually prohibit loaded crude oil tankers from transiting the waters that the ban itself covers.

What are we doing there, and why is this in place? Is it helpful in any way?

[Margareta Dovgal]

Are you referring to tankers coming into and out of Alaska along the coast, or do you mean other tankers?

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

I'm referring to the ban that prohibits the loading and unloading of crude oil in large scale along our northern west coast but does not prohibit the transiting of loaded ships through those same waters.

[Margareta Dovgal]

I don't know the specifics of why it would have been written that way. My understanding of why it remains in place and why we get this bizarre circular logic on why it's in place is that it's more to do with indigenous consent. I think that's a policy decision.

I think there are negotiations and conversations that can be had with nations to get their support where it's necessary, and where it's not necessary, the government will say that this is what is in the national interest and that they're going to build this kind of stuff.

It's a choice to keep it on the books in the way that it's written. My understanding is that the way it's written is one of the factors that informed the choice to take the west coast pipeline and say that we're going south instead because it's holding things up there.

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

You would probably join me in saying that you have no interest in seeing oil spills on our west coast. I know that's a serious concern for residents of that area, including indigenous communities. How do you feel about the safety of our marine transport sector?

[Margareta Dovgal]

Canada's oil and gas sector is phenomenally safe and responsible. I think that maritime activities and shipping are incredibly safe. We have an entire oceans protection plan that a previous government put in that redoubled a lot of these efforts.

I've been on a tour of the Westridge marine terminal, where the Trans Mountain expansion ends. I've spoken to west coast marine response, and they are ready and active at every single moment. There are multiple tugs that escort every tanker out of our territorial waters. We have trained coast pilots from the highest levels of the industry, who expertly navigate every crevice of the coastal waters off the coast of British Columbia. I think all the conditions are in place.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Mr. Lavoie for four minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being with us today.

Mr. Nankivell, in 2025, you wrote an article entitled “Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy at three: presence, partnerships and the next turn”. You touched briefly on diversification and expanding markets. However, one thing caught my attention, and I'd like to give you the opportunity to expand on it with us today: namely, that you don't just want Canada to sell more to these countries, but also to become more integrated into regional value chains.

Could you explain that a bit further? What does it mean to you to integrate into these countries' regional value chains?

[Jeff Nankivell]

For example, we were talking about exporting Canadian products that are integrated into these countries' supply chains, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Vietnam is a good example and it is experiencing very rapid economic growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

There is an opportunity—one that is growing year after year—to sell products that are themselves inputs, that are part of the final product; they are not Canadian exports but they include components that come from Canada. This is a large market, given the importance of Asia's manufacturing sector as the global hub for these activities. This is a vast field for Canadians to explore.

We're not just talking about products; we're talking about services as well. We don't talk enough about services, which are high-value exports.

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

Thank you, Mr. Nankivell.

Mr. Smith, earlier, my colleague Ms. Acan asked you some questions. There's one question she didn't have time to ask you, so I'll ask it on her behalf: Once Canadian suppliers identify a potential foreign customer, what are the main obstacles to obtaining the necessary authorizations in that country? What concrete support could a federal government provide?

[Todd Smith]

Obviously, we're anxious for Canada, and really the Province of Ontario, to make decisions on CANDU technology for both the Bruce site and the Ontario Power Generation site at Wesleyville. That will go a long way toward alleviating concerns—if there are any concerns, and it doesn't sound like there are many concerns—on any political, regulatory or financial moves. I think once they see Ontario building CANDUs, the phone is going to ring off the hook at Candu.

It's going to take that team Canada approach. We've certainly seen it over the last year in particular, when Canada has been locking arms. When I say “Canada”, it's the Canadian government, and our Canadian supply chain partners have also been locking arms. Potentially even operators here in Canada can be providing that expertise to countries without a nuclear ecosystem when they're looking to build nuclear for the first time, again with the regulator being resourced properly so that they can share information with the regulator.

What we're hearing over and over again from countries and regulators in those countries is that they don't want to reinvent the wheel. If a CANDU reactor is regulated and operated safely—which we have done for 60 years in Canada and in other countries around the world—then why would they create a new process? Let's rely largely on the work that's been done by the regulator in Canada, while of course making sure that the site-specific regulation that you're talking about, be it in Turkey, Poland or wherever it might be, is being met—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Smith. I'm sorry. We need more time today.

Mr. Simard, go ahead for one minute.

[Mario Simard]

Madam Chair, you are too generous.

Mr. Nankivell, I want to come back to your opening remarks. You talked about the opportunities to further develop the aluminum market. It's important to understand how the aluminum industry works. To use aluminum, you need access to a rolling mill. You don't use ingots that way. It's mainly the Chinese and the Americans who have rolling mills and are currently able to supply aluminum sheet.

We may be able to export a small amount of primary aluminum, but I don't see how, in the short term, we can export more processed products from Canada if we lack this infrastructure. I don't know what discussions you're basing your comments on regarding interest in aluminum, but right now, I think that even though Canada is a major producer of primary aluminum, it lacks the capacity to supply customers with processed aluminum.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Can I have a very short answer?

Maybe you can give us some of these answers in writing.

[Jeff Nankivell]

The short answer is that this is an example of a long-term project. That's exactly what I said about the importance of investing in transformation projects. Green aluminum is a good example, because global demand will continue to grow.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Now we have Mr. Mantle for two minutes, and then it's Mr. Naqvi for two minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to move a motion, but I don't want to take away my colleague's ability to ask questions. I'm happy if he wants to take his two minutes, and then you could come back to me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Naqvi, you have two minutes.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This won't do it justice. I want to first compliment Mr. Smith, because he and I served together, but that would take about three minutes, so I'll get to the questions.

To both Mr. Nankivell and Mr. Smith, thank you very much. I love your enthusiasm for the opportunities that exist for Canadian energy, and nuclear energy in particular.

Mr. Smith, very quickly, share with us what the Canadian government needs to do to make the kinds of deals you were talking about in places like Turkey, Poland and Southeast Asia to help facilitate the important transfer of energy technology, especially nuclear, to that part of the world.

[Todd Smith]

Thank you very much, and it's been great to see you in places where we are looking to plant CANDUs in the future, whether it be in Poland or down in the ASEAN region. Your colleagues in the Government of Canada have been there as well, talking about the Canadian advantage, the Canadian nuclear ecosystem and how countries can replicate that.

Obviously financing is a big part of any nuclear deal. This could be through Export Development Canada in using the resources that are available to them and having the CCC as a partner to put together the financial stack that it's going to take to ensure that these projects move forward.

I think what we're seeing in the nuclear strategy that was laid out is a plan to build new CANDUs in at least four different countries by 2040. I think the Canadian government sees the opportunity that comes with CANDU and the return that will come back, both in jobs and in GDP growth in the country. We have seen that type of approach as a result of that strategy, and again, I go back to resourcing the CNSC.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Naqvi.

We move on to Mr. Mantle for the remaining two minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

As I mentioned, I want to move a motion that I put on notice on April 13 of this year. It's a motion to require the Canada Border Services Agency to provide the committee with a copy of the SIMA handbook.

We've had discussions about this before. For those who need a refresher, the SIMA handbook is an administrative guideline for people who interact with Canada's trade remedy regime, which deals with anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard investigations.

For many years, going back to the 1990s, as Mr. Naqvi can explain, the SIMA handbook was made available to members of council, to members of the importing community, to brokers, to freight forwarders, etc. It's a statement explaining how the CBSA understands its authority under the Special Import Measures Act.

Last year, the CBSA made a decision to no longer provide the public with copies of the SIMA handbook. They've taken a position that it is an internal enforcement manual, and they no longer wish to provide it. I've heard from many members of the bar, as well as many members of the importing community, that this is causing them great difficulty in understanding how the CBSA is operating under the Special Import Measures Act.

There's a basic principle I see here, which is that parties who are interacting with it as administrative decision-makers need to understand the case that they have to meet. That's a basic legal principle. That is being impeded because the CBSA is no longer offering that.

We've had some discussions about it. This motion has been on for a while, so I wanted to move it at the end of this meeting. We have a break week next week. Maybe we can discuss further how we might address this to give the importing community a better understanding of the case they need to make when they're dealing with the CBSA. That's why I'm moving this motion.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Go ahead, Mr. Naqvi.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Chair, I don't know how you want to deal with this if we're moving a motion, but I want to say that Mr. Mantle and I have been quite active in working together trying to get a copy of this handbook. We did have CBSA officials undertake to look into this. In the summer months, we got a note from them, as Mr. Mantle stated, saying that it's an internal enforcement document, which means they no longer share the document publicly. I personally don't know what goes into classifying that and what legal parameters or otherwise are used to do it.

What I suggest, Chair, given that we're not sitting next week, is that I try to get further information as to whether there's any other means by which the document could be made available, perhaps if not publicly, then maybe on a confidential basis to members. Then I could report back to you and the committee the week after next.

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

I'm happy to work with Mr. Naqvi on that over the break week. The intention was, now that I've moved the motion and we're running out the clock, for it to be up for continued debate at our next meeting, so hopefully that will put a bit of a fire under me and Mr. Naqvi to figure this out before then. Otherwise, we can vote on it.

Regardless of what the CBSA's position is, the committee can compel documentation from the government.