International Trade committee  Maybe I'll talk about the EV industry as a whole. I think the answer is that there's absolutely tons of potential. I think Mr. Zaghib talked about this in his remarks. When we talk to our members about the potential opportunities here in Canada, there's a major juxtaposition that we can make to our benefit, particularly against markets such as China.

International Trade committee  I would just say that there are a lot of measures, depending on the sector you're talking about. Some are short-term and some are long-term. I can give you two examples of trade-facilitating measures. One [Technical difficulty—Editor] they're looking at new deployments of IT platforms later this year.

International Trade committee  I can commit to following up via the clerk and the chair with the numbers that we do have. I don't have them at hand. I think, certainly qualitatively, there is the concern about the transportation infrastructure in the southwestern Ontario region that risks not having the fuel it needs to move, whether it's trucks or aircraft, with what's going through the Line 5 pipeline, but I would be happy to follow up with some numbers for the committee's consideration.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Chair, for the introduction. Honourable members, it's a pleasure to be back at the committee for my first appearance of the 44th Parliament. It's good to see both new and familiar faces. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is glad to see that the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade has decided to prioritize a Canada-U.S. study.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. Absolutely, on labour shortages, we hear this time and time again, and not just in the travel and tourism sectors but across the board in many industries. That probably begets a future study for the FINA committee. In terms of the travel restrictions, absolutely: It has become infinitely more confusing for people to navigate.

Finance committee  I may want my colleague Alla to step in here, but I will say that the tag line we always use is that small businesses are the engines of job creation in communities across the country. That's not just a nice talking point; I genuinely do believe it to be true. I'm sure that all of the members around this committee in their constituencies know that to be the case.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. Through the chair, happy birthday to you. Beth talked about a number of things that are important in general terms. Maybe I'll drill down specifically with respect to the rent aspect of this program. It's not just about paying employees' wages or the fixed overhead costs for businesses.

Finance committee  Yes. In terms of the business sentiment, I think the challenges we're seeing are mostly in the hardest-hit sectors, as we call them. They are the ones that haven't seen the job increases that have come back. Certainly we recognize there are limits to what the public purse can ultimately bear.

Finance committee  Yes, I would say that I think the list broadly reflects the discussions we have had with officials in Minister Freeland's office in advance in expressing some of the views we had about how it should be done. Yes, I think it's fair to say we're broadly content with the list.

Finance committee  Thank you. At the top of our presentation I certainly want to urge passage of Bill C-2. I think it's important to say a brief word to situate how we see this bill in the context of the Canadian economy, particularly with the fall economic statement coming next week. Businesses have repeatedly made clear to us that compounding additional uncertainty and burdens on their competitiveness is not an option.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We'll be splitting our time this afternoon. Mr. Chair and honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-2. It's great to be back at parliamentary committees, albeit still in a virtual form. I'd just say congratulations to this committee for being first out of the gate in terms of various committees with work under way on the House side.