Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I really appreciate it.

My name is Veso Sobot and I'm an engineer with IPEX, headquartered in Oakville, but I'm a board member of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses. I like to call us the coalition of job creators, and I'll be speaking on behalf of the coalition in my testimony today.

We will share three suggestions for how to unleash Canadian entrepreneurship and help make this decade Canada's decade. Suggestion one concerns trade with the U.S. USMCA or CUSMA, as we call it, has been very helpful in many respects, but contrary to common belief, it does not protect us against buy America. Canadian companies continue to be blocked on U.S. federally funded infrastructure projects while American firms have unfettered access to Canada.

Ironically, the company I work for buys American all day long. Our products are made from American resin. Natural gas that's sent from Canada makes its way to the U.S. and is cracked into ethylene and combined with chlorine and salt to make pellets that are used in long-life building construction products like siding, windows, soffits, decking, fencing and pipe, and of course in the medical sector in a very big way and in the auto sector in a very big way.

Last year, 18% of U.S. vinyl resin production came to Canada. China was America's second-largest customer at 10.1%. Mexico was third at 10%. This year, we expect Canada to be the biggest customer for America, bigger than China and Mexico combined. We have leverage. If you recall, Prime Minister Harper successfully secured an exemption to buy America with President Obama back in February of 2010 using leverage. We think it's time for Prime Minister Trudeau to do the same with President Biden, especially now when there's a shortage of construction products in the United States and the two are ideologically congruent in many respects.

It's in America's best interests to use Canadian products rather than Chinese. Canada shares best practices and has some of the best environmental credentials in the world. Focusing on green infrastructure and Canadian solutions to U.S. problems is the key to an exemption to buy America. An example of that beneficial Canada-U.S. relationship can be found in Burton, Michigan, just outside of Flint. After careful due diligence, Burton removed its water supply lines and replaced them with 19 miles of Canadian innovation biaxially oriented lead-free vinyl pipe, which conserves resources by using significantly less material, reducing its environmental footprint and still providing high strength.

The pipe was made by IPEX in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, just outside of Montreal, using Unifor labour and installed by LiUNA members in Burton. Burton now has cleaner water, has minimized its environmental footprint and has saved $2.1 million U.S. for its taxpayers. Indeed, a 2018 American study showed that Canadian break rates for vinyl pipe were best in class, implying that there's a great benefit to Canadian municipalities' using innovative Canadian technology for infrastructure renewal.

With regard to suggestion number two, many of you have seen the poll this week that says 74% of Canadians believe government debt is too high. We believe one way to lower that debt is to unleash entrepreneurs, especially those who export. Consider incentivizing exporters by exempting them from, let's say, the carbon tax, and watch the debt problem be reduced over time.

With regard to suggestion number three, another important thing that can be done to help is to stop the attack on plastics. Environment and Climate Change Canada is poised to declare plastics toxic any moment now, when in fact that's a classic overreach. They're not toxic. Doing that presents the danger of killing Canadian jobs in every sector. It's creating a chill that is already driving investment out of Canada, when all that's needed is an effective, coordinated provincial litter strategy.

In conclusion, we urge the committee to help, first, to secure an exemption to buy America, second, to incentivize Canadian job creators to export, and third, to stop self-inflicted wounds like the ones from declaring plastic as toxic, which it's not.

Thank you very much. I look forward to your questions.

Transcript

Discussions (0)