International Trade committee  As someone who has to manage the spreadsheets when we're costing collective agreements as we go into bargaining with the automakers, I can tell you that two factors usually come into play when we're looking at the cost variables. One is the dollar and the other is Canadian health

International Trade committee  This is a great place for discussion. We would say that, no, the current incentives are not adequate for trying to incubate and grow this market, which are going to be vital to both jobs and our economic prospects. We've called for a $10,000 purchase incentive from the federal go

International Trade committee  Very quickly, I think we know there is going to be a lot of capacity needed in this space for battery manufacturing. As others have mentioned, landing these factories in Canada is going to be vital, not just for the growth of the supply chain domestically but also since, as you h

International Trade committee  That's right. I guess one of the key pieces is how we strategically put all of those components together. I think one of the dangers we face is that we're attempting to build a sector and see it grow significantly but absent is a coordinated strategy in which various policies wil

International Trade committee  This may be the most lucrative space there is right now in developing a clean economy. Canada has proven that we have the capacity to grow the sector. I think we have to not kid ourselves into thinking that every auto-making nation around the world has the same ambitions we do. T

International Trade committee  If I understand the question, you're asking what factors make us less competitive. I would say—and maybe I will sound like an auto sector salesperson here—there's no reason why Canada can't be among the most competitive jurisdictions in the world. When you think about all the in

International Trade committee  I think that any time there's a way to build in transparency around how these programs operate, it's always of benefit. Maybe the point I'll disagree on is how seemingly empirical the U.S. model is under the IRA. There are certain quantifiable subsidies that have been presented.

International Trade committee  Right now, we're still mining through where this IRA takes us. We need the full details of how this bill is going to work and how it's going to be implemented. We still have a lot of questions, as I'm sure other panellists do. When we have the full suite of that, we'll form an id

International Trade committee  Was this question for me?

International Trade committee  Very quickly, this is always the concern. You heard in my remarks that the IRA isn't intended to be a “let's help Canada” piece of legislation to make sure Canada builds out its auto industry. This is about U.S. public funds going to support U.S. workers and U.S. industry. We hav

International Trade committee  Thanks very much. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee. I'm grateful, as always, for the invitation to speak with you today. I'm here on behalf of Unifor, which represents 315,000 working people across the country in virtually every major sector of the economy

International Trade committee  I can take a first stab at that, Mr. Masse, and then maybe Shane will jump in. It's a bit of an open-ended question. There's a long history to the Auto Pact. To some extent, right now we're dealing with the product of that decision we made in 1965 to build an integrated North A

International Trade committee  It's right to say that over time, depending on what time frame you're looking at, Canada's share of the North American production footprint has fallen. A lot of that can be explained over time—at least a twenty-year time frame—with rising assembly capacity built in Mexico with ne

International Trade committee  Absolutely. I think all of this complements my earlier points about the last number of years specifically through CUSMA. That experience was a bit of a changing of the channel about how we understood the role of labour rights in continental free trade, something another speaker,

International Trade committee  Thanks very much for the question. In terms of the impact, as was mentioned in Mr. Wark's opening remarks, we're talking about existential threats to this industry and future investments. To close us off from our biggest trading market would be devastating. I think our advoca