Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Mr. Chair, I'll still keep my remarks to five minutes even though there's some time there.

It's a pleasure to be here on behalf of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada. As always, we appreciate your interest in our industry and your willingness to work with us on the challenges we are facing.

With respect to the export permit process, there's a lot of frustration within the aerospace and defence industry. We've been raising these frustrations to government for many years now. Unfortunately, the situation is not improving. Let me just state at the outset that, given the current economic situation, this isn't simply about businesses being frustrated. There are real economic opportunities being missed, opportunities that could yield significant financial dividends here in Canada.

As most of you will know, aerospace is an industry that is highly export intensive. The inability to get product out of Canada has severe economic impacts, impacts that ripple across the supply chain.

I should preface my remarks by saying that our industry is also concerned about ensuring that Canadian values are respected in all of our dealings, and we support an effective export permitting process, but why do we have concerns and what exactly are the challenges we're facing?

Hundreds of millions of dollars of work have been lost, and hundreds of millions more are still at stake, all supporting good-paying Canadian jobs. There are four main issues from our perspective, and they involve clarity, timing, transparency and process.

On clarity, companies are looking for some assurances of where they can and cannot export. Right now we don't have that, and while industry is sensitive to the fact that government needs to be keep certain aspects of its diplomatic work pertaining to security confidential, surely there's a way for government and industry to work in better alignment to ensure significant time and resources aren't wasted on ventures that will never move ahead because permits will never be issued. Companies are spending a lot of time and capital to tee up new business and, in many cases, years of work. Significant costs are incurred. Significant energy is expended, only to be told, “Sorry, better luck next time”. Clarity is needed.

We're asking the government to work with us to strengthen the process. It's not in anyone's interest to waste time and resources, and this is currently the case on all sides.

On timing, when it comes to timing, the service standards for permits are all over the map. We have issues that have taken months and, in certain cases, even longer. Businesses need assurances that, if they are exporting from Canada, the timing to secure the permit is not going to jeopardize the sale. We've raised this issue several times. We know that officials at Global Affairs Canada oftentimes are hampered by the time other stakeholders take to review the application, but delays are delays, and the result is lost business opportunities.

That brings us to transparency. It would be extremely helpful for businesses to have the ability to find out where their applications are within the system. Currently, once the application is submitted, businesses are in the dark. It doesn't have to be this way. Our friends and allies like the United States have a system that offers businesses more detailed information in terms of the progression of the application. We've shared this with officials, and it's something that deserves to be explored.

Finally, on the overall process, it is our firm belief that an overall review is needed to ensure that the process doesn't inhibit the ability of business to export from Canada. As part of the review, we believe the concept of a triage system should be explored. This is just one of the potential ways to streamline things to better improve timelines. For example, if an application is submitted that is part of previous application already approved by the department, there should be a mechanism to fast-track the process. Why repeat cumbersome duplications when they're not needed?

Improving clarity, timing, transparency and the overall process is long overdue. Work packages and, more importantly, the good-paying jobs and capability we have here in Canada have the potential to leave the country, and I don't think anyone here wants to see that.

We were encouraged to see funding in Budget 2021 to strengthen the administration of Canada's trade control regime. This is a good first step, but more resources are required specific to the export permitting process, so we ask for your support on this and on the need for an overall review of Canada's export permit process. A signal has to be sent from the political level to ensure that this is deemed a priority.

Please help us ensure that our businesses are able to responsibly export their product without undue delay and compete in the global marketplace.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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