Costas Menegakis

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak to Bill C‑39, the building Canada strong act. It contains important legislative changes that are part of our government’s effort to protect Canada’s economic future by reducing red tape across the supply chain, including in transportation. Last year, our government passed the Building Canada Act, which dramatically expedited projects of national interest, removed internal trade barriers and ensured labour mobility. Over the past few months, we have worked diligently to ensure that the review of all projects, not just those previously covered by Bill C‑5, will be approve within a time frame that meets Canadians’ expectations. They expect their government to be efficient, and Bill C‑39 gives them a reasonable one-year timeline. A year to get a project approved is plenty. These days, with our economy facing headwinds, we have to be efficient. We want to streamline government procedures and ensure that guardrails are in place when we accelerate project reviews and lower costs. We know that every delay in the approval process and every duplicate decision comes at a high cost to our businesses, and in the present circumstances, their patience is wearing thin. Obviously, the global economic environment we face is different than the one we knew following the post-Cold War era. For a long time, our economy had the wind in its sails. Conditions with our southern neighbours were extremely steady. Access to the U.S. market was also freer within the North American trade environment, and the rules were understood and obeyed. Unfortunately, our businesses no longer operate in this environment. It is therefore absolutely essential that we act now through what remains within our control. Obviously, we have no control over what happens south of the border, but we can control what happens here, at home. We have long been told that we must become efficient. We have talked a lot about our supply chains. Unfortunately, our neighbours to the south are using our supply chains as tools of coercion and turning our economic dependencies into a strategic vulnerability. In this rapidly changing world, our new Government of Canada is focusing, as I said earlier, on what we can control, including diversifying our markets to build a much stronger Canada. Transportation is a vital link between all of our other priorities. We cannot diversify our markets and trade to build the strongest economy in the G7 without strengthening our transportation network. By strengthening it, we will, of course, strengthen our competitiveness across all sectors. We are going to build Canada strong through Canada’s trade corridors that connect our Canadian businesses to markets and supply chains across the country and around the world. Indigenous peoples, transportation industry representatives and Canadians often tell us that to build stronger, more efficient and more resilient supply chains, we need to cut red tape, strengthen supply chains, accelerate infrastructure development and attract the investments needed to grow our economy. At the end of the day, when our businesses are doing well and are no longer facing unnecessary barriers, job creation matters in Canada. Affordability always starts with a good, well-paying job. Red tape and an insufficiently competitive tax system hinder our businesses’ innovation and productivity. With this bill, we want to modernize our business environment and make Canada one of the best countries in the world in which to invest. This needs to be addressed urgently. Yes, we have challenges, but we also have opportunities. If we want to seize those opportunities, we obviously need a regulatory framework that allows us to do so. That is why we are modernizing the rules for getting projects built and making real investments in the infrastructure Canada needs to compete in this new environment. That does not mean that we do not want to put protections in place. Canadians are asking us to build fast, create jobs, support our economy and build Canada strong, but we must also protect them. They are not asking us for one or the other; they are asking us for both. This bill is in line with the regulatory framework we are already operating under. I just mentioned red tape. Federal departments and agencies have identified more than 500 recent initiatives and proposed measures to reduce the administrative burden. This bill therefore allows our federal agencies to begin implementing some of those initiatives. This will demonstrate how Canada intends to fulfill its commitments to remove the barriers that slow private investment, limit trade and labour mobility, and of course, restrict business productivity. We have made strategic, and indeed historic, investments to build Canada strong. We have introduced a number of strategies and made historic investments, as I just said. If we do not address persistent constraints, such as the administrative burden and the transportation system, we cannot maximize Canadians’ investment in their economy. We need to maximize the return on every dollar Canadians invest in their economy. That is what we are doing with this bill, which is essential to making every dollar more productive. Since I am running out of time, I want to get right to the issue of farmers. I am member from the Outaouais, which is a very prosperous region. We have corn, soybean and canola farmers, for example, who are among the most competitive in the world, but they have to be able to get their grain, soybeans or canola to international markets. This bill will ensure that our roads are efficient, our rail system is reliable and our ports are able to quickly process essential goods. Every link in the chain is important, and when one of them is slowing things down, costs increase and our farmers’ competitiveness decreases. Investing in transportation infrastructure is a direct investment in the competitiveness of our farmers. In addition to agriculture, Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi also has a large number of food processors, people in the agri-food sector as well as in the technology and manufacturing sectors. That is important. We want to diversify our markets and provide opportunities for the people in these sectors, but again we need solid and effective infrastructure. In closing, I would just like to add that the digitalization of all of the documents that must be submitted to the various government departments to send goods to the international market is crucial. The digitalization of documents is an important part of this bill.”