House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 43% of the vote.
General Motors Plant Closure November 26th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, as my hon. friend and colleague, the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge, explained a few moments ago, based on his extensive knowledge of the industry, recent tariff decisions by either the United States or Canada would have had nothing to do with the kinds of decisions that were made globally by General Motors in this case.
As for a price on pollution, it is a wonder that the party on the other side wants to make pollution free again.
General Motors Plant Closure November 26th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague for Brampton North.
As many have said, the decision by GM today is a deeply disappointing one. While we understand this is part of its global restructuring plan and affects its operations globally, I cannot start to understand how devastating this must be for the men and women whose jobs are affected, along with their families and community.
Although I represent a riding from Quebec and have lived the last 30 years of my life there, some people will remember that I grew up in Niagara, and General Motors in St. Catharines was a very important part of our ecosystem. I had a cousin who worked there and family members. We knew what was happening with GM and the ecosystem. We understood its impact whenever there was a downturn in the market or an adverse decision was being made.
I understand full well that today's news will have a significant impact on the community of Oshawa surrounding that plant, the network of suppliers that support the Oshawa plant, as well as the other U.S. plants impacted by the General Motors announcement. General Motors has a long and storied presence in Oshawa, going back over 100 years, and it is simply devastating to hear of this plant's closure.
While GM has made this decision in the context of its overall global restructuring plans, a plan that is closing multiple North American plants as well as three global facilities, it is important to highlight that this is not a reflection of the workforce in Canada. Canada's auto workers, and particularly those in Oshawa, have a global reputation as highly skilled and award winning workers.
We will continue to work closely with our provincial counterparts to help those affected by this closure. We are committed to supporting the workers and the community of Oshawa during this difficult time.
We are also committed to providing assistance to those affected directly by this closure. The government will deliver benefits to employees as they are entitled, with a quality of service that they deserve.
A range of support services and programs is currently available and can be deployed quickly to help workers who may be affected. These services include employment insurance benefits, counselling, job search assistance, and skills training and development provided by the provinces and territories under labour market transfer agreements.
As a government, we will continue to monitor the situation and the impact on workers closely to ensure that those affected receive the assistance they need to quickly find new jobs.
Our government understands that the automotive industry is a vital component of our economy. Over half a million jobs in Canada directly and indirectly depend on the auto sector. Our government understands the importance of this sector and we remain committed to keeping Canada's automotive manufacturing sector globally competitive and innovative.
Our government's support for innovation in the auto sector is an essential component of our plan to stimulate economic growth and create better opportunities for Canadians.
To that end, we are building on several key policy initiatives to strengthen Canada's auto sector by supporting innovation and technology development and by creating the ecosystem that will help Canada become a leader in designing and building the car of tomorrow.
We have a plan that builds on and leverages the expertise in the industry and the expertise in technology shaping the industry's future. Our innovation and skills plan helps position Canada as a leader in the global economy with commitments to grow Canada's automotive footprint, support digital innovation and invest in clean technology.
The strategic innovation fund, now a $2 billion program, has provided funding to support innovative projects in the automotive sector. Since November 2015, our government has invested $389 million in 37 projects undertaken by Canada's automotive sector, resulting in leveraging of nearly $4.1 billion in total investments in the sector.
In addition to this, 23 other projects were announced without any federal government support, leading to a minimum of $1.5 billion in additional automotive sector investments. It is about the ecosystem and we are investing in it.
For example, and as mentioned previously, earlier this year we provided $49 million to create 1,500 new jobs and maintain another 8,000 to help Linamar Corporation launch a new innovation centre in Guelph, Ontario, and I am seated next to the member for Guelph and honoured he is beside me this evening, dedicated entirely to research and development.
Furthermore, in May, we provided $110 million for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada in Cambridge, Ontario, that will help retain 8,000 jobs, create another 450 new jobs and provide 1,000 more co-op placements. That is our future, making Toyota's Canadian plant the largest producer of Toyota hybrid vehicles in North America.
Our innovation superclusters initiative announced earlier this year will invest up to $950 million to support business-led superclusters with the greatest potential to energize the economy and become engines of growth. This new fund is encouraging cross-sector partnerships in investment in areas such as advanced manufacturing, which has a direct impact on the Ontario automotive sector in particular, as well as digital technology and artificial intelligence, all of which go to support the car of the future.
I welcome what was said just a moment ago by the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands with respect to encouraging the kinds of disruptive technologies that will in fact make our economy of the future that much stronger.
Thanks to our global skills strategy, it is now easier for businesses to recruit the talent they need, which helps Canadian businesses grow their operations and create more jobs. The strategy comes with $39.4 million in funding over five years starting in 2017-18 and $6.7 million annually thereafter.
We launched a new agency called Invest in Canada to attract international investments and make it easier for businesses to set up shop in Canada.
In addition to these policies, we are continuing to encourage investments through tax policy. In the fall economic statement last week, my colleague, the hon. Minister of Finance, proposed some important changes to Canada's tax system to encourage more investments, including accelerated write-offs on new investments, with the overall tax rate in Canada on new business investment falling from 17% to 13.8%.
We have heard from Canadians who told us that we needed to work on our competitiveness, and we have with these very measures.
We will continue to work closely with industry, the provinces, municipalities, unions and all other stakeholders to protect and grow Canada's auto industry.
As the second largest manufacturing sector in Canada, the auto industry generates roughly 130,000 jobs and contributes $18.1 billion to the GDP. This sector is vital to our economy, and we are deeply committed to supporting it.
As technology is rapidly transforming the future of mobility to one that is connected, automated, zero emission and shared, the government continues to amplify Canada's automotive manufacturing strengths, innovative research capabilities, technological expertise and talent. Together, with a robust supply chain comprised largely of small and medium-sized enterprises, these strengths contribute to the ecosystem, which makes Canada a location of choice for the design, development and manufacturing of the car of the future.
Our hearts go out to the people of Oshawa. Our government has said that it will remain open to all possibilities to not just help those workers or the transition that may happen, but also to continue to invest in the automotive ecosystem, not just in southern Ontario and not just in Oshawa, but across Canada, when we talk about those supply chains.
General Motors Plant Closure November 26th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. minister for his remarks, as well as his leadership on this issue and on the innovation file generally.
We have heard a number of people in the House, including the member for Durham, talk about the future of the auto industry and where we ought to be going, so I would like to ask the minister to elaborate on where we are going, for example, on the car of the future and automated clean, green technology with respect to cars. I know he has more to say about it, and I would like to hear him.
Telecommunications November 23rd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Nickel Belt, a proud Franco-Ontarian, for the question.
Canadians deserve an equal opportunity in the digital economy. That is why we have signed an important agreement with the provincial and territorial ministers to develop a long-term connectivity strategy. Canada has made incredible advances, building mobile networks that are among the fastest in the world and deploying broadband Internet across the country. Through connect to innovate, our government is providing basic infrastructure to more than 900 rural and remote communities.
Telecommunications November 23rd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, I will take the question from the hon. member under advisement and get back to him personally with an answer.
Telecommunications November 23rd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, we are working very hard to connect Canadians from coast to coast to coast through the connect to innovate program, which invested $500 million across Canada and leveraged over $1 billion in partnership with provincial and territorial governments. We are making progress in 900 remote communities across Canada, which have benefited from this program. We have laid down 19,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable. The current fall economic statement allows a further tax deduction for the laying of fibre optic cable.
We are moving forward.
Telecommunications November 23rd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, I was at the meeting with the people of Mégantic when they were here. We reaffirmed our commitments and explained what we are doing: we are connecting Canadians to the Internet across the country with the connect to innovate program.
As I said, we targeted 300 communities across Canada and we have helped 900, 190 of which are indigenous communities. We are connecting remote and rural communities across Canada to the Internet and we will continue—
Telecommunications November 23rd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, let me correct the record. There is a 5G program in place, led by a number of different companies, including Ericsson. We will trust the opinion of our national security advisers on this matter. We will never compromise our national security. At the same time, we will be open to investment through the Investment Canada Act and other procedures that are meant to protect Canadians and see that we get value for money.
Our national security is never compromised. We trust our experts and we work with them.
Telecommunications November 23rd, 2018
Mr. Speaker, our government is open to global investment that will grow our economy and create good middle-class jobs, but never at the expense of our national security.
When it comes to telecommunication services, we promised Canadians that we would improve the quality, the coverage and the price of their services no matter where they lived. That 5G technology is an emerging part of that picture of service to Canadians. We will make sure that Canadians have access to this technology, but not at the expense of our national security.
Telecommunications November 23rd, 2018
On the contrary, Mr. Speaker, we have taken significant action to connect Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The connect to innovate program, $500 million, has resulted in 900 communities in rural and remote Canada being connected. That is 600 more than we had targeted with our initial group.
We take connectivity seriously. We know Canadians need to be connected for economic and social reasons. The minister sat down with his provincial and territorial counterparts in October. We will have a national strategy moving forward.