International Trade committee  It's a legitimate fear, given the experience of past agreements, but I've seen various proposed texts that would address that and make sure that the agreement itself is enforceable. I think it can be done. There are creative ways to do it and we would support that.

International Trade committee  I'm sorry. Could you please clarify Bill C-101 again?

International Trade committee  Yes. On safeguards, the number one thing we heard in our various meetings with the U.S. administration and officials was this ongoing concern around Canada's treatment of transshipment. It was never defined but was always raised, so it's very important that we're taking measures

International Trade committee  Our worry is that if this deal doesn't get ratified, and particularly, if the President feels frustrated with Democrats, he may decide to withdraw from NAFTA. I still think there's a very real risk of that happening. It then becomes an open question of what we return to. There'

International Trade committee  Thank you. There's no doubt that our overarching recommendation to government was to do no harm, which they were successful in doing, but we also had a long list of offensive priorities that we were hoping to have addressed, including buy American, clearly, and labour mobility,

International Trade committee  Sure. That's a Bank of Canada projection from their macro model, but we have numerous examples from member companies. Throughout this process, we've been thinking of doing things, for example, upgrading a manufacturing line. We decided to hold off until there's more certainty in

International Trade committee  The approach that's been taken by government over the past few years has been very positive. This has been a wild ride, to say the least. Nobody expected that we would have this NAFTA threat. The way it's been dealt with has been fantastic. I must thank Steve Verheul, our chief n

International Trade committee  We met with a number of House Democrats, particularly those on the ways and means committee, who are looking at this right now. I was surprised, frankly, with the encouraging messaging. They seem to be genuinely trying to, as Speaker Pelosi has said, get to yes. When we were ther

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. Thanks for the invitation to be here today to take part in your consultations. As you know, the Business Council of Canada represents chief executives and entrepreneurs of 150 leading Canadian companies. Our members employ 1.7 million

Finance committee  It's an excellent question, and you're right. You hear calls for this repeatedly, but when you scratch below the surface and ask for details, you don't necessarily get information on exactly what the objective should be. Our view is that it has to be comprehensive, meaning that

Finance committee  Yes. First, I should have recognized that the committee did make that recommendation. We noticed that, and we're very appreciative of the fact that you recommended comprehensive tax reform. On the U.S. fiscal situation, of course, what they're doing is clearly unsustainable. We

Finance committee  Thanks for having me, Mr. Chair. Committee members, thanks for the invitation to take part in your consultations on Bill C-97. As you know, the Business Council of Canada represents the chief executives and entrepreneurs of 150 leading Canadian companies in all sectors and re

International Trade committee  It's a very simple tool, and it's going to sound rather bureaucratic, but EDC, BDC and the trade commissioner service don't share a CRM system. It strikes me as a very basic thing you could do so that someone in government can see that this person has access to different services

International Trade committee  The immediate expensing...? No, this was a reaction to—

International Trade committee  That's fair to say, yes.