Kelly McCauley

“Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the good people of Scarborough Southwest, especially when it is to address challenges we are facing not only across my riding but across Canada. Over the past several years, Canadians have witnessed how quickly events beyond our control and beyond our borders can affect our economy at home. A conflict, a war or atrocities on the other side of the world can disrupt energy markets on this side. A shortage of shipping capacity can increase costs for Canadian businesses. A disruption to rail lines, highways or ports can affect producers and consumers on both ends of the supply chain. We have heard in the House, even this morning, about the bureaucracy and time constraints related to putting shovels in the ground. We need to ensure that we are addressing those challenges, and doing that fast and efficiently by streamlining the system. Across this country, Canadians are feeling the pressure of what is happening right now, and I am really excited to speak to Bill C-39, because we are addressing those challenges. With higher prices at grocery stores, small businesses having to make very difficult decisions or families having to sacrifice one thing for another just to make ends meet, we must try to ensure that Canadians’ paycheques can cover all their costs and that they are able to pay their bills. In the face of these global realities, our government was elected on a firm commitment to reinforce Canada’s economic sovereignty and empower our country to build bigger, stronger and faster. Our supply chain is built from ports, railways, roads and, most important, the great workers who work so hard every single day to keep goods moving. They are the backbone of our economy. Over the past year and a half, our Prime Minister and our Liberal government have been moving at record speed to ensure Canadian economic resilience as the world becomes increasingly volatile. Stronger supply chains are imperative to our government’s ambitious plan to double non-U.S. exports, build major projects and attract record investments. This is why Bill C-39 is so important. The building Canada stronger act aims to do exactly that: further strengthen our existing supply chains while supporting good-paying jobs, helping Canadian businesses compete and keeping costs down for the hard-working people of our country. Bill C-39 recognizes that our transportation network does not operate in isolation. Our ports, railways and roads are part of a connected system, and we need to start planning and investing in them that way. That means looking at the movement of goods across an entire corridor, identifying where the delays are and the capacity constraints occur, and measuring how the system is performing. The bill would also create a national trade corridors council to monitor trade disruptions, continuously identify bottlenecks and recommend improvements to the Minister of Transport. As we invest in our trade infrastructure, these measures would ensure that those investments are directed toward the places where they would have the greatest impact. A congested port can mean additional storage costs. A lack of rail capacity can mean grain sitting in elevators rather than moving to markets. For small businesses, a shipment arriving late can result in loss of revenue, higher costs and a difficult decision-making process. Whether to pass on that cost to the consumers or to maybe lay off employees, it could mean the end of a business. It could be the end for a lot of local small businesses that had been running for 10, 20 or 30 years. This summer I had an opportunity to visit a local business, Accuenergy, an electrical parts manufacturer in my riding of Scarborough Southwest. It has been run by a father and his son since 1998. Accuenergy supplies its products to over 170 countries around the world, and it employs more than 300 people. I had the opportunity, with the Minister of AI, to talk to some of the employees from my riding and from across Scarborough and the GTA. There are so many businesses like Accuenergy across Canada that are building right here at home, creating good-paying jobs and seeking to compete in markets around the world. As we ask businesses to diversify into new markets beyond the United States, our government has the responsibility of making sure our infrastructure can keep up with that ambition. There are other major pieces in the bill that I would have loved to have highlighted, but I wanted to make sure to point out that what we hear in the House, such as the complaints from the other side about putting shovels in the ground and moving things faster, would be addressed by the bill. Bill C-39 would modernize our process to make sure we are able to get shovels in the ground, make decisions faster and get faster approvals so we can address the challenges people across this country are facing.”