International Trade committee  The e-commerce movement requires a whole new skill set. Clearly, Quebec is facing a shortage of those skills right now. I am in favour of strengthening education. Essentially, it is the key to moving forward. We can build robotics, but then someone has to maintain and program the

International Trade committee  For the returns, I agree. Returns are a big part of e-commerce. They're expensive. They have to be automated, and that is a lot of friction. I was in my store this morning and I sold a three-dollar hair accessory. To say the taxes I collected on it are friction, no, that's just t

International Trade committee  The logic for me would be that if you take the de minimis, let's say it is raised, then in a sense there's an issue of sacrificing your sovereignty, your national independence to make certain decisions. I'll go to minimum wage. To build a robotics facility in southern Ontario or

International Trade committee  I agree completely that we have a lot to offer and that we can compete. I can just talk from my point of view. What's holding us back right now is really the question of our ability to handle the quantity of transactions in a productive way. It necessitates enormous investment.

International Trade committee  It's an important area. The only comment I would make, without perhaps as much reflection on the issue, from a personal point of view, is that there has to be good co-operation regarding the payment providers. I've had a number of experiences where we have a piece of AI that id

International Trade committee  Do you mean on the fraudulent payments?

International Trade committee  In general, no. I collect my taxes and I remit them to the—

International Trade committee  I'll address that in two parts. How have we stayed successful? It's been very demanding for a private company over the last 10 years. We've invested massively in our e-commerce operations. We still feel there's a new equilibrium business model being formed between stores and e-c

International Trade committee  Yes. It's amazing how much creativity there is in Canada at that micro-level. There's Philippe Dubuc, who's a designer in Montreal, who runs one shop. We've been supporting him, and we're working with new start-ups from coast to coast today. It's not only product start-ups we're

International Trade committee  As of today I've never accepted a dollar of—I have, I'm sorry. There is a scientific tax credit for innovation in the supply chain that we've accessed, but it's a non-factor for us. We've put together a vision of what we want to build and we've struggled to build it on our own, a

International Trade committee  I do not remember that comment specifically. A de minimis threshold of $800 would certainly have a huge impact on the choice of location, a choice that would also be a function of the supply of labour and the minimum wage. That would impact a broad range of decisions.

International Trade committee  Yes, definitely. For my part, I invest here, in Quebec, and I plan on continuing to do so. That being said, I do not think all players are on an equal footing. That is why I raise the issue of a zero de minimis threshold. We could certainly discuss it, since we will get there ev

International Trade committee  We are certainly not on an equal footing right now, because of the whole issue of customs and sales taxes being collected or not. There is obviously uncertainty about the de minimis threshold, which worries us. Even when that is all in place, there will still be major challenges

International Trade committee  Actually, I do not have a team that can come up with a structure for that.

International Trade committee  Essentially, when companies refuse to collect sales tax for technological reasons, for example, we must not be naive. If there are driverless cars in Los Angeles, we can certainly collect sales tax. It will of course require international coordination. I would be very pleased to