Mary Ng

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, Canada and the U.S. share one of the largest agricultural trading relationships. The WTO ruled in 2015 that the mandatory country-of-origin labelling measures in the U.S. discriminated against Canadian exporters, and we expect the U.S. to continue to abide by this ruling and the WTO obligations.

Our government will continue to stand up for Canada's beef industry and its workers, and we are firmly opposed to any new proposals from the U.S. to resurrect mandatory country-of-origin labelling for beef or pork.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. This government stands for all industries, all sectors, all across this country. We will do it every single day, and we will continue to do that for all sectors all across the country.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, this is a really important issue for our government. Of course, we are standing up for all sectors of the economy. The issue around the EV credits is before the Senate right now. It is why I was there last week. It is why we ensured that we communicated clearly to the American government that this issue is important to the hundreds of thousands of workers who are in this sector of the economy.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member will agree, as we all do and as he said, that the forestry sector and its workers are incredibly important. It has been a very, very difficult year for Canadians in that sector, and indeed in all sectors, living through this pandemic. I am very proud of the work we have been doing to support our forestry workers all across the country. We will continue to stand up to the United States on this very important issue around softwood lumber.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's forestry sector is incredibly important to the Canadian economy, and I understand the frustration from my colleague on the opposite side. While I was in the United States, I had an opportunity to meet with the National Association of Home Builders, which agrees with us that the high duties and tariffs on softwood lumber hurt its plan for building more affordable homes for Americans.

We are going to keep doing the work here to ensure that we defend Canada's softwood lumber workers and our industry. That work continues.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I share my hon. colleague's concerns; we all do. The forestry workers in his riding and in ridings represented by all parties of the House are of primary concern to us.

I want to reassure my hon. colleague that we are looking for an outcome that is acceptable to the industry and to workers. I encourage the member opposite to work with team Canada.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, we have been very clear: Canada's forestry sector and its workers are incredibly important to the Canadian economy. We have also been very clear that the tariffs the U.S. has levied against us are unjustified. We have defended our interests. We defended them in CUSMA, before the NAFTA panels and before the WTO. It has been ruled that Canada is a fair trading partner.

We are going to continue to stand up for Canadian forestry workers and the industry, which employs so many incredible Canadians across the country.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, throughout the pandemic, as hard as it has been for Canadians all across this country, on this side of the House we have stood up for small businesses. We have provided unprecedented supports so they can continue to operate, keep their people on payroll and pay their bills. We have incredibly strong programs to help Canadian businesses start up, scale up and access new markets, including programs for women entrepreneurs and Black entrepreneurs.

This is about helping the Canadian economy recover. We are doing it on this side of the House, and I challenge my colleagues to join us in supporting our small businesses.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, we are not going to take any lessons from the Conservatives on this. When we were negotiating NAFTA, the Leader of the Opposition said that we should just capitulate and take any agreement. On this side of the House, we will make sure that we get a good agreement for Canadian workers and for Canadian businesses. We have done that before and we are going to do it again.

[Automotive Industry, December 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, we are not going to take any lessons from the Conservatives. We stood up against section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. We were successful then. We are prepared to stand up for national interests now, and we will be successful this time too.