N E W S   R E L E A S E

Standing Committee On Industry, Science And Technology presents Report On The Economic Impact On Canada Of The September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the united states

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, 27 November 2001 – Susan Whelan, Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, tabled in Parliament today the Committee’s report on the economic impact on Canada of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. The report, entitled Getting Back to Business, is the product of the Committee’s intensive investigation into the long-term economic impacts on major Canadian industries of these attacks. The Committee provides recommendations to the federal government on what it can do to reduce the impact of these events on Canadian industry.

“In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on the United States, indirect economic shocks to many business networks rippled from ‘Ground Zero’ in the heart of New York City’s financial district to the rest of the continental United States and have migrated north to Canada” said Ms. Whelan.

The Committee heard representatives from many of Canada’s major industrial sectors, some of whom provided estimates of their financial losses incurred that were indirectly attributable to the terrorist attacks on the United States. These industrial sectors comprise the manufacturing sector, including the automotive sub-sector, iron and steel makers, and aluminium producers; the transportation including the automobile industry, including the airline industry, for-hire trucking, railways, and travel agents; the tourism sector, including hotels and convention centres; and the mining and retail sectors.

“The destructive force of the terrorist attacks extended beyond their impact sites, shaking consumer and investor confidence throughout North America and, in turn, propelled an already weak economy further downward. Structural problems in the airline sector and long-time under-resourced Canada-U.S. border crossings became immediately exposed” said Ms. Whelan.

The Committee advises the federal government to take bold action to resolve perennial problems at Canada-U.S. border crossings, and suggests that the government undertake a number of critical initiatives:

·        That the Minister of Finance, in his next budget statement, confirm national security and border trade as the Government of Canada’s number one priority at this time and back this commitment with needed expenditures.

·        Establish a high-level bilateral ministerial summit between Canada and the United States on border issues, spanning security, trade facilitation and immigration concerns, with the objective of developing a comprehensive and coordinated long-term management plan for Canada-U.S. border crossings.

·        Include the proposal to conduct Canadian customs inspections in the United States and U.S. customs inspections in Canada (“reversal of inspections”) as part of the federal government’s discussions and negotiations with the United States.

·        Expedite discussions and negotiations with the United States to reactivate modern customs and immigration procedures, such as NEXUS, CANPASS and other pre-approval programs, which may include biometric technologies and the creation of shared information systems.

·        Immediately implement, using the best available technology, a comprehensive paperless pre-approval system for all “just-in-time” commercial shipments.

·        Developand fund an infrastructure program to improve the highways linking Canada’s existing border crossings as well as modern off-site inspection areas and access roads, and equip these facilities and crossing points with enhanced security technologies.

·        Provide for an increase in customs and immigration personnel.

In terms of Canada’s ailing airline industry, the Committee believes that structural and September 11-created problems are not easily disentangled. Government loan guarantees to the industry should not be dismissed out of hand. To this end, the Committee recommends that the Government of Canada carefully examine the viability of Canada’s air transport industry.

According to the business community, and this Committee agrees, the Government of Canada could deliver on its five-year 100 billion tax cut plan that was set out in Budget 2000 and on its promised “innovation agenda” to be financed over the next decade, without falling back into deficit. Such a plan, it is widely believed, would restore consumer and investor confidence for a general economic recovery in Canada by early 2002. Thus, the Committee recommends:

·        That the Government of Canada continue its fiscal strategy of developing a two-year rolling plan, backed by a contingency reserve, using conservative economic assumptions to deliver a federal budget that does not contemplate a return to a deficit.

·        That the Government of Canada continue the practice of retiring its debt by an amount that is not less than the funds available in the contingency reserve at the end of each fiscal year.

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Members of the Committee are: Susan Whelan, Chair (Essex); Walt Lastewka, Vice-Chair (St-Catharines); Charlie Penson, Vice-Chair (Peace River); Larry Bagnell (Yukon); Claude Drouin (Beauce); Stéphane Bergeron (Verchères-Les-Patriotes); Bev Desjarlais (Churchill); Jocelyne Girard-Bujold (Jonquière); Preston Manning (Calgary Southwest); Dan McTeague (Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge); James Rajotte (Edmonton Southwest); Andy Savoy (Tobique-Mactaquac); Brent St. Denis (Algoma-Manitoulin); Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley); Paddy Torsney (Burlington); Joseph Volpe ( Eglinton-Lawrence).

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