International Trade Committee on Oct. 27th, 2025

[Ryan Greer]

It's really an all-of-the-above type of approach. We need to build more of everything. Certainly, trade-enabling infrastructure has the virtue of making all of our members who use it more productive. It is one of the best ways that you can invest a public infrastructure dollar.

In terms of private investment, we were strongly supportive of Bill C-5 and the Major Projects Office. However, it's the what's next. We want to see that office take on more projects. We want to see more projects get on the list, but we also want to know, for all of those small and medium-sized manufacturers that may not be part of some of these larger supply chains, what can be done to modernize and improve the regulatory environment in which they operate.

We think an all-of-the-above approach is really going to be necessary to unlock capital in such a risky environment.

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

Let's look at those SMEs. On the tariffs' impact on business just across the board—steel, aluminum, lumber—do you see incentives where the government would be able to support to help SMEs weather this storm?

[Ryan Greer]

I think the government has taken some good steps. Certainly, the EI work-sharing program is something that several of our SME members and some of our larger members have had to access or are continuing to access.

We're waiting to see how some of the regional investment incentives roll out, and we're certainly watching the strategic response fund to see how that can be accessed.

Broadly, I think the government has done its best on remissions, which has been tremendously difficult and challenging. We've had some issues around timing and the challenges of going through the remissions process. It can still be very burdensome and take quite some time for manufacturers.

The most important factor for the government to consider going forward is remaining flexible. That is the most important thing. As we've seen, the U.S. is threatening to increase tariffs. We've seen an expansion of the 232 derivatives list. We have some manufacturers who were completely CUSMA exempt up until a month and a half ago and then found everything they were exporting to the U.S. was subject to a 50% tariff.

We need to make sure that federal responses, programming and remissions processes are as flexible and adaptable as the current environment is. We think that's the first step to trying to manage the situation.

More broadly, as I mentioned earlier, we need to see a continuation or even an acceleration of some more broad-based measures to support business competitiveness and productivity. We can't keep everybody whole in an environment like this. What we can do is try to support investment and opportunity for as many businesses and workers as possible through looking at regulatory tax, interprovincial trade and some of those types of things.

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

Thanks.

As we approach the CUSMA review, the Prime Minister set up the PM Canada-U.S. council. There is also a trade council that has been set up.

Is what we have in place today providing the right opportunities as a feedback loop so that your members can get information to our negotiators and to government to be able to make whatever decisions they need to make in real time? Are we getting that information the way that we need it so that we're able to be at our best when we are going through this CUSMA review?

[Ryan Greer]

From our perspective, we haven't had any issues communicating risks and opportunities through to the government.

As we transition to the CUSMA review process, last time around, we—and I use the royal we because it was before I joined the organization—were one of a few national trade associations that had weekly and, in some cases, daily engagement with trade negotiators on what was on the table and how Canada was approaching it. We are hopeful that this type of approach continues again so that there can be a systematic, very formal way to understand what's going on.

At the moment on the bilateral side, it's a bit more difficult to tell how those negotiations are going and what's on the table. We understand that there are probably some legitimate reasons for that.

We will continue to feed through to the government. I think how they structure that process as we get into the formal CUSMA review will be very important.

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

Thank you, Mr. Greer.

Mr. Maddox, just quickly—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 17 seconds.

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

I know, time, time....

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Time is always a problem.

Mr. Bonin, welcome to the committee.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon, colleagues. I'm pleased to be here today replacing my colleague.

Mr. Greer, I'd like to come back to the Canada US Trade Council, which was announced in January 2025 and which you sit on. Have you been involved in anything the board has done recently?

[Ryan Greer]

To clarify, CME does not sit on the Canada US Trade Council. We directly engage with all participating departments, ministries and staff on an ongoing basis, but we're not directly a member of that council.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Okay, so the council consulted you on the matter. What sort of consultation took place?

[Ryan Greer]

We have had some engagement with the council through our staff, our president and CEO at various fora, yes.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

What kind of consultation took place?

[Ryan Greer]

They did some engagement prior to the change in government, so under Prime Minister Trudeau. I know there was some work done at some events in Toronto as well as some informal outreach and conversations with our president and CEO and the council.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Have you had any consultations since the new government came to power?

[Ryan Greer]

I haven't myself directly, no.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

What about your association in general?

[Ryan Greer]

Not to my full awareness, no.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

You have contacts with American organizations similar to yours. What are you hearing from them?

[Ryan Greer]

Yes. We work very closely with the U.S. National Association of Manufacturers. They're our equivalent there. We're on calls with them on a near weekly basis. Their leadership has been to Ottawa a couple of times in the last 12 months. We've also spent time with them in D.C. and on Capitol Hill.

In short, we've heard from them what I think many of you have heard from those in D.C. It is a bit of a scattershot approach to try to figure out who has influence at any given moment around the administration. They struggle with some of those same challenges in trying to communicate the virtue and values of North American manufacturing to the administration.

They also have members, some of whom strategically can benefit from some certain tariffs or protectionist measures.

In general and in broad strokes, they have been continuing to advocate on Capitol Hill and with the administration for the future of CUSMA. Roughly three-quarters of Canadian exports to the U.S. are inputs, and those inputs are what help fuel U.S. manufacturing.

We will continue to work with them through the CUSMA process to ensure that we're aligned on how we're approaching governments.

I would add that we work very closely with our counterparts in Mexico, as well. In fact, we had all three associations in Ottawa at almost this time last year to have discussions about the future of CUSMA and how it has benefited all of our organizations and their members.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

The figures I've seen are from June 2025. You say that approximately 16% of Canadians who responded to the survey indicated that they had relocated some of their production to the United States to deal with rising costs and uncertainty related to U.S. tariffs. Do you have more recent figures on that? To your knowledge, is it a trend that has accelerated or intensified?

[Ryan Greer]

We don't have any updated figures since the ones that you just quoted.

Anecdotally, for those who do have facilities in the U.S., you can sort of flex production on either side of the border. There's obviously been an incentive to move around the tariff wall whenever they can.

Anecdotally, we've heard that's continued, although I don't have any specific figures around the percentage of members who have said they've been able to do that.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

South of the border, or at least on the U.S. President's part, there has been some backtracking when it comes to the environment.

Are there any concerns among your members who have made investments, who have taken strategic positions on the energy transition and who are now facing unfair competition? Are there any important environmental considerations that should be part of the current CUSMA negotiations?

[Ryan Greer]

To be honest, we haven't heard much, but I think part of that is because all of the gravity and the focus has been on tariffs and the impact on tariffs.

Prior to President Trump's election and the threat of an eventual imposition of tariffs, there was a tremendous amount of focus around investment incentives in clean technology and how that was taking investment south of the border. We've heard some concerns, even around continued clean-tech investment, given some of the incentives under the big beautiful bill, around writeoffs and other tax incentives favouring manufacturing businesses.

The large majority of our members' focus has just been on tariff relief, how we can get out from under the tariffs and how we can get back to doing what we do best, which is building things together to compete with the rest of the world.