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Results: 1 - 60 of 161
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I wanted to start with Ms. Pohlmann.
I was interested both in the data you assembled and in your comment about the need for data. What could the Government of Canada do to collect better data and how would that be useful?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
I see Ms. Nott and Mr. Turi nodding violently as you're speaking and I saw that when you made your presentation.
Do either of you have anything to add? Any kind of specific recommendation you could make on how the government could collect data better would be useful to us because we can put it in our report.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Ms. Nott, you may be a statistician, but I think you are a logistician, which I thought was very impressive.
Mr. Turi, do you have anything to add to that?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Those answers are really fascinating, because the other area I wanted to ask you about is global value chains, global supply chains, and how we're doing at fitting in.
There's an interesting new report, which I'm sure you've seen, from the Institute for Research on Public Policy by Ari Van Assche, specifically about Canadian companies in global value chains. The argument made in this article is that we are not doing a good enough job promoting the kinds of exports that fit into the global value chains and that we need, when we think about export policy, to really understand that it's not only about us making stuff here and sending it somewhere else, but also about being embedded in global supply chains.
My question, to whoever is passionate about this, is this. Do you agree, and what can we do about it?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much.
I would like to thank all of the witnesses for your testimony. I think it's very inspiring for all of us to hear from people who are working so hard to start businesses and employ people.
I also want to comment that it was great for me to hear all of this testimony about the hard work of Canadian diplomats and how they're helping you. We sometimes malign people who work for the Government of Canada as bureaucrats, but we hear from your stories that they're really helping our economy grow.
I want to start with Mr. Hall.
Your story about having to sell out to expand, I think is an all-too-frequent and sad story of what happens to Canadian businesses. We're really smart. We're entrepreneurial. We're hard-working. However, we seem to get to this point in our businesses where as soon as they're really succeeding, we have to sell out.
I'd be interested in your view—and from other witnesses—on what we need to do to create conditions for companies like yours so that you can grow to be the giants and the world-beaters who are acquiring rather than being acquired.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Would anyone else like to comment?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Can I ask one more question, or am I out of time?
As I still have a bit of time left, I have a question for Mr. Letenneur.
You are active in Asia. Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, an important element for you?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
How would Canada's non-participation in the TPP agreement affect you? Would it be a problem?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much.
I wanted to start with Mr. Hall and make a request of our analyst. I thought his point about having paired advisers was really interesting and may be a specific point that might be something we can agree on. I wanted to ask you to make a special note of that and to thank Mr. Hall for making that point.
Another really specific comment we've heard from other witnesses has been that businesspeople who are actively involved in trade find the fact that you can't get a second Canadian passport—which is something that businesspeople in other countries can do—to sometimes be a problem; and that when you're applying for a visa from a country where it takes a long time, it would be convenient to have a second passport. Is that an issue that any of you have encountered?
Mr. Hall?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay. I guess you guys don't travel to the countries where it's really hard to get a visa.
I wanted to ask also about this issue of clean tech.
What you said about the carbon market and the importance of having an array of clean technologies was very interesting.
Will Ontario's participation in the carbon market be an opportunity to create an array of clean technologies with other provinces?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
You referred to Scandinavia, Germany and China, where there is a lot of innovation in the area of clean technologies.
Is it too late for Canada? Will it be possible to do that here?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
British Columbia and Alberta chose another system. Will it be possible to have an array of clean technologies with that approach?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much to our witnesses, including our witness who is joining us long distance. It has been really valuable for the committee to hear directly from people running businesses.
Ms. Bak, I was really interested in the comment in your presentation about Canada being invited for years to second technical experts to the World Bank. Can you explain a little more what that invitation has been and why you think it is so important that we do it but haven't been doing it so far?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much for that. I know our analysts were listening. I think that would be a good specific point to raise.
I was also really interested in your reference to the fact that a lack of a clear national environmental strategy means that Canada has been losing out on specific agreements, like the U.S.-Mexico deal. Again, I wonder if you could elaborate on that a little. Where, in your view, should Canada have been and what have we lost?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Do I have time for one more question, Mr. Chair?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay, great.
Ms. Materi, I was really interested in your reference a moment ago to the Asian infrastructure bank. As you know, Canada is not a member. Should we be?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay, thank you very much.
I just have a final question for our three witnesses who are here.
We heard some really interesting testimony from an entrepreneur from British Columbia. As a woman starting her own company, she said she was surprised to discover she had greater problems getting access to capital than she would have done had she been a man.
To our three women witnesses, have any of you experienced that? Do you have any ideas on what we can do to help?
Ms. Jackowetz, you look—
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
You've seen how excited my colleague Murray is to have the great Victoria companies. Since I'm the MP for Toronto Centre, I'm going to start with the Toronto companies. It's great to have great entrepreneurs from Toronto here too.
Mr. Bar-Ziv, I thought your points about trade being a global competition were extremely well made, and you clearly have experience, not only in this current company, but in your past life, as you put it. Based on that experience, what are a couple of the best practices that you've seen from other countries in supporting their entrepreneurs in global trade that we should be doing? Is there something you've seen Israel doing? Is there something you've seen the U.S. doing? I don't know, maybe Finland is great at it.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay, and you think we're not doing that enough now?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Now to make that work, you've cited the Israeli example. Something Israel has been very good at is a cluster strategy and something sort of similar to what Glen was talking about, but really focusing on what it sees as the country's core strengths and building out from there.
Do you think Canada needs to do that? Are we in danger of sort of spreading the peanut butter too thin across too many different areas?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
Dr. Laslo-Baker, I was interested in everything you had to say. I have small kids too and I'm going to yell at them when I get home for not inspiring me to found a brilliant, successful company. In particular regarding your point about the difficulties that small trading companies can have getting credit, I'd like to ask you not so much about the government side of things but how you feel about the attitude of Canadian banks. We've heard from other witnesses at the committee that they feel that maybe those conservative lending practices that served us quite well in 2008 aren't so fabulous if you're an entrepreneur, especially one doing international trade. Has that been your experience?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Sorry, Ms. Grewal, we've hit five minutes. Is that okay?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much.
As you may have noticed, Randy has transformed himself. He had to step away, so he's asked me to be your chair for the last 45 minutes. Randy and I share an intense interest in farm implements and their trade into eastern Europe.
Next up is Murray Rankin for five minutes.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
We're going to have to leave it there, and thank you for that excellent question.
I'm going to allow myself some editorial comment. I also thought that was an excellent report by the Conference Board. Thank you for that hard work.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay. We heard it here first.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Allen, you have five minutes.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Should we let Mr. Stebbins follow up?
An hon. member: Yes.
The Vice-Chair (Ms. Chrystia Freeland): Please, Mr. Stebbins, go for it.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you for those great questions. I think we're all especially grateful that you followed up on the women and banking comment that we were all very interested in.
Mr. Carrie, the floor is yours for five minutes.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
You have 45 seconds left.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay. That's a nice note on which to end your five minutes, isn't it?
Okay, Ms. Liu, please.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
I think that is a lovely note on which to conclude those sets of questions.
Normally when we have only one panel in this committee we tend to wrap up around now. Do I have the consent of the committee to do that?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
Mr. Ron Cannan: Thanks for building these relationships.
The Vice-Chair (Ms. Chrystia Freeland): There you go.
On behalf of all of us here, thank you very much to all of our witnesses. As usual, it was great to hear from Mr. Hodgson, but I think it was particularly inspiring for all of us to hear from these great Canadian entrepreneurs.
An hon. member: Hear, hear.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
We're waving to Mr. Stebbins as well.
Mr. Shawn Stebbins: Thank you.
The Vice-Chair (Ms. Chrystia Freeland): The committee is now adjourned.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I want to start with Mr. Williams.
I was interested in your comment about the harmonization of duties. That's a very big task. Are there any sort of pieces to it, first steps, that would be helpful for you and that you could see as feasible?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay, thank you very much.
I have a question, again for you, Mr. Williams, and also for Mr. Cartmill. I think it probably doesn't apply to Ms. Malo so much.
This is on your comments about credit for your export work and how hard it is to get from Canadian banks and also Canadian government institutions. Based on your practical experience, what could we do to make that a little easier?
Mr. Williams, you could maybe go first.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Cartmill, do you have any comments on that?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay, thank you very much.
My next question is for the three witnesses.
Last Monday, we heard other witnesses say that there was a problem, since Canadians can have only one passport. That is a challenge for entrepreneurs who have to travel a lot for their work.
Would it help you to have two Canadian passports?
We heard from some of our witnesses on Monday that it's a real barrier to business to only be able to have one passport. They know that if people in other jurisdictions, for example in Britain, need to have two passports because of travel, they can get a second one.
Would that be useful?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
I think the comment from our witnesses was that they travel to countries where it takes a long time to get a visa. If one of your passports is in the embassy, you are blocked from travelling during that period.
I wonder if Mr. Williams and Mr. Cartmill encounter that.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Williams, do you have any comment on that?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much. It's a shame that our chairman can't ask some questions, because he's an expert in—
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
—some of these export areas, agricultural technologies to Kazakhstan.
I want to start by saying thank you so much to all the witnesses here today. As MPs we can sometimes lose sight of why we're here and what we're doing in Ottawa. Even though we've had a broken-up set of conversations with you, I have to say that for me, and I'm sure it's true for everybody else on the committee, hearing your stories of the innovative entrepreneurial work you're doing and how ambitiously you are breaking into world markets from across the country is incredibly inspiring. I think it is the view of the whole committee that it is our job to make your lives easier, ladies and gentlemen, and we are so committed to doing that. You guys are what makes Canada great, and I'm proud to be here to listen to you.
Specifically, I was very interested in the point about having two passports for people who travel for business. I was an editor at the Financial Times for many years, and British journalists can get two passports.
Is this something the other witnesses think would be a good idea? Is it a problem you have encountered?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
It seems like a small thing. Maybe we could get all-party agreement on it. Maybe it could be one of our recommendations, a really specific, concrete small thing we could do.
Another very specific thing that I think Mr. Deveau mentioned was greater ease in getting visas for potential clients, investors, and people who are coming to Canada.
Can you expand on that a little bit?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Currently the programs only go the other way.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
This is a question for Ms. Kehler.
One thing this committee is going to be talking about—I hope we'll get around to it—is the free trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine. That's something there's a lot of support for in this whole Parliament.
You talked about Kazakhstan. Have you considered doing business with Ukraine, and would you consider it even in these turbulent times there?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
The dominant fact today about the oil industry and therefore pipeline safety is the fact that it's experiencing a sudden and rather deep downturn.
Do you have any concerns that the economic pressures the oil industry is facing might have an impact on pipeline safety and on the ability of companies to meet some of these financial demands laid out in the act?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
As I understand it, the bill would set up a consolidated revenue fund that would be available to pay for claims that a company is unable to satisfy in the event of a catastrophic spill. Is that right?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Can you say how it's the case and how it's not the case, and give us some insight into the thinking around it?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
What is the thinking behind there ultimately being a public liability?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Can you give us any sense of what the considerations would be that would go into figuring out a reasonable period of time for industry to pay back Canadians?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Labonté, in one of your answers you referred to the fact that this comes as part of a broader universe of different forms of transport and safety levels of those different forms of transport. That was especially interesting to me because in my riding of Toronto Centre there is very heightened concern about rail safety because of the rail line that passes through this very dense urban riding.
Could you give us a sense of how the safety measures set out here for pipelines compare with the level of safety and regulation for transport by rail? Have you thought about it in the context of that bigger puzzle?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
I'd like to follow up on some of the questions that Monsieur Caron and Ms. Charlton were asking specifically about the three-year time limit.
Let's imagine a situation in which the billion-dollar limit has been reached and then, after the three years, new claims arise. How would those claimants be covered?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
If I may say, in defence of that line of questioning, surely part of the job of legislation is to imagine various hypothetical situations and to cover them.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
But I thought I just understood from the first part of the answer that, if I made a claim after the three years, I would be okay because negligence had already been established, and now I'm understanding that's not the case.
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Do I have another minute?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
I'll go back to Ms. Charlton's point about volumetrics versus type of goods.
Again, in my riding, on rail safety, my constituents are extremely concerned about certain types of oil being transported by rail, especially in their case the Bakken. Are there any particular types of oil transported in pipelines that you are particularly concerned about? I heard your arguments about volumetrics being the best metric, but is there something which there should be a special level of scrutiny around?
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View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to start with Mr. Walker. Thank you very much for being here. I'm a big believer in impact investing in the B corp movement and I'm delighted to have you speak to all of us. If you could pass on my best wishes, and I think those of the committee, to Mr. Emery, who I know can't be here because there's been a death in his community.
I would like you to talk a bit more about B corp legislation. You've said that the B corp movement is doing well in Canada already without that legislation. What difference does legislation make? Why is that something we should care about?
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