The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - The “Buy American” Plan

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. It is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:09.140 host, Jamie Schmale, Member of Parliament for Halliburton, for the Lakes Brock. Thank

00:00:12.960 you very much for joining us. As always, we have new content every single Tuesday, 1.30

00:00:17.620 p.m. Eastern Time. We ask that you like, comment, share, subscribe to this program, help us

00:00:24.000 push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda. If you can't watch it here today, right

00:00:27.900 this second on Facebook, you can download it later on and listen to it on platforms like

00:00:32.220 CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it. It is out there. We had a great show

00:00:38.220 last week when we had a panel discussion with a couple of Alberta members of Parliament,

00:00:42.620 as well as one from Saskatchewan about the Keystone XL pipeline and the cancellation, what the

00:00:47.220 ramifications were for this, because it is a major issue here in this country. And also

00:00:54.400 the next piece of the puzzle, we're going to bring in Tracy Gray. She's the Member of

00:00:57.720 Parliament for Kelowna Lake Country. She's also the Shadow Minister for Export Promotion

00:01:01.940 and International Trade, because we're going to talk about the new president's executive

00:01:07.260 order, the Buy American Plan. We're going to talk about that and the effect it has on industry

00:01:11.360 and businesses, because this is another blow to our great entrepreneurial spirit here in

00:01:17.860 Canada. Tracy Gray, welcome. Thank you for coming.

00:01:20.640 Great. Thanks for having me on.

00:01:22.100 All right. Let's talk about Buy American. What does that mean? What happens? What are the

00:01:25.760 implications? Great. Well, the Biden administration announced this, well, they signed an executive

00:01:33.860 order, basically saying that, well, there's a few things that will affect Canadian businesses

00:01:40.460 the most. The first is that they're going to be having a director of Made in America, and

00:01:47.160 so actually putting some effort into focusing on this Buy American policy. They'll also have

00:01:54.540 waivers that will have to be publicly posted so that U.S. businesses can appeal or try to

00:02:01.860 get the business. And they've also raised the U.S. content for arrangements that, in order

00:02:08.520 to satisfy their desire for this Buy American. Now, how this, we don't know all of the details

00:02:15.680 yet, but I'll just give you one example. I was on the phone this morning with an organization

00:02:20.720 that was explaining how the content portion could play out. So as an example, there's a company in

00:02:27.400 Western Canada that makes buses. And so some of the production is done here, and then they're

00:02:34.720 shipped out on a reefer truck to the U.S. and to their plant in the U.S. They're finished. And that

00:02:41.620 meets right now whatever the U.S. requirements are. They put the engine in and do other things.

00:02:46.140 Depending on how much that has changed, there might be less that might be able to occur in Canada,

00:02:52.820 or it might even change so much that it may not be worthwhile even producing in Canada. I had another

00:02:59.780 company that I talked to last week that's in my riding of Kelowna Lake Country, and they're a small

00:03:05.900 business. They do have a manufacturer product that they sell through a distributor in the U.S.

00:03:12.520 who then sells to a division of the federal U.S. government. And they're not sure how this will

00:03:19.520 affect them. You know, and so there's a lot of uncertainty right now. I think that the most

00:03:25.220 important part of this is that back in 2009, during the Obama administration, they were implementing

00:03:33.600 similar but nowhere near as strict by American policies. And at that time, the conservative

00:03:40.980 government was able to negotiate exemptions for Canada. And so we have called on the government

00:03:48.440 to do the same, to get to the table and make sure that we negotiate exemptions for Canada,

00:03:54.600 just like we did back then. So pre-COVID, about a billion dollars in trade going back and forth

00:04:00.780 across that international border between Canada and the United States. We have probably our best

00:04:07.060 friend, of course, our largest trading partner there about, I heard numbers as high as 30%,

00:04:13.540 probably 20% of our economy, 25% of our economy. So this is a major hit when you combine it with the

00:04:19.200 fact that our anchors of our economy, our oil, natural gas, our mining sector are hurting right now,

00:04:25.900 mostly because of policies brought in by this government. And the fact that our manufacturing

00:04:31.140 sector could face another hit, as well as a number of other spinoff jobs as a result of this decision,

00:04:38.340 because I think at the end of the day, nobody wins a trade war.

00:04:42.240 Yeah, and I think you've touched on how important our relationship is, and this goes to our supply

00:04:48.720 chains. So, you know, what that means is that we do have a lot of products that during the course of

00:04:55.680 their production, go back and forth across the border. You know, you might have the raw materials coming

00:05:00.680 from one country, going to the other country to be produced, maybe back and forth, there's parts.

00:05:05.520 So this is part of this very integrated supply chain that we have. And, you know, right now,

00:05:12.000 I know a lot of companies that I've talked to are looking at how this might truly affect them,

00:05:17.080 because this, you know, this, this executive order is new, and they don't have all the details.

00:05:22.500 So in fact, some of those numbers that you've given could be even higher, when you actually look at

00:05:26.640 all of the integrated processes. Now, I will mention as well that as part of KUSMA, which is

00:05:33.160 the new NAFTA that was signed last year, the Conservatives were bringing up a concern that

00:05:41.080 in part of KUSMA, there's Chapter 13, which actually covers the Buy American issue having to do with

00:05:49.880 procurement. And Canada did not negotiate to be part of Chapter 13. The US and Mexico negotiated.

00:05:59.440 And so Chapter 13 only applies to them. But Canada is not part of that in KUSMA.

00:06:06.020 And that was a failure of the Trudeau government to actually engage at the beginning of the process.

00:06:10.300 And we all remember back, well, a few years ago that we were actually pushing them to get to the table

00:06:16.020 first and actually engage in the conversation before we basically get kind of what's left after

00:06:22.400 the deal's already been made.

00:06:24.980 Yes. And so what we're reverted to now is as part of that trade agreement, you know,

00:06:29.820 which is separate than this from this executive order. But, you know, what, what we can revert to

00:06:34.640 now isn't part of this trade agreement that we've just signed, we actually have to revert to

00:06:39.420 the World Trade Organization, the WTO, which we know, in some respects, isn't fully functioning,

00:06:45.440 also because of the US not fully participating. So we don't have a really strong mechanism right now,

00:06:52.880 other than for this government to get to the table and negotiate an exemption, just like we did back in

00:07:00.300 2009, 2010.

00:07:02.860 Let's rewind the tape a bit to the former conservative government under Stephen Harper.

00:07:06.980 We all remember the massive global economic crisis. And we do remember the pain that the US economy

00:07:14.700 went under because they had 6 million plus people immediately out of a job. And it was in a real

00:07:20.440 major crisis in pretty much every sector. That's when I think the fast forward, the pressure was on.

00:07:27.180 We were always the party of free and fair trade. But I think the speed was on. And to credit from

00:07:32.400 from your provincial colleague, Ed Fast and Jerry Ritz and many, many others in that team,

00:07:37.760 John Baird and others, started the work in securing trade deals with countries all over the world so

00:07:43.880 that our dependence did not necessarily have to be always on the United States, we had other options.

00:07:51.080 Yes, and that goes to how, you know, over the last number of years during this government,

00:07:56.700 how it really hasn't been a focus of theirs. You know, we have embargoes right now in China,

00:08:01.780 of course, we saw the Keystone XL, we don't have a softwood lumber deal. We've seen tariffs put on

00:08:08.500 steel and aluminum. And right now, the US is doing investigations on a number of produce

00:08:14.820 products, specifically strawberries, blueberries, and bell peppers being exported from Canada to the US.

00:08:21.940 We have the Canada-UK trade agreement, continuity agreement, which is a rollover of CETA. You know,

00:08:29.680 the government had four years to work on making modern amendments to that. There was, we've heard

00:08:37.220 at committee that there was very little consultation within the public realm to businesses and to

00:08:45.180 industries. And so we have an agreement that's very similar, which we are supporting because it's

00:08:50.760 really important to give businesses stability during this time and certainty. But there are

00:08:56.660 certainly changes that industries would have liked to have seen negotiated in, and other things

00:09:01.640 specifically as well. So, you know, we've seen this ongoing way that this government has dealt with

00:09:10.440 a number of issues, which is sort of waiting until you're the 11th hour, being really pressed up

00:09:15.540 against timelines and then racing through legislation and negotiations that, you know, perhaps could have

00:09:22.580 been done more wholeheartedly and rigorously and ended up with better arrangements at the end.

00:09:29.800 I think there's something you mentioned that needs to be looked at here as we unpack this. It's

00:09:35.560 stability and certainty. I think that's one thing anyone in the business community looks for when

00:09:40.160 investing inside a country because they want that stability. They want that certainty. They want to

00:09:45.480 be able to sell this major project to their investors, because let's be honest, the, the, the options

00:09:51.440 around the world to, to the vast majority or vast number of countries is quite significant that people

00:09:57.640 could do business in. So we need to ensure that when we do come up with government policies, that there

00:10:02.480 is a clear path to either a yes or no answer. And companies can make that determination before they

00:10:07.540 invest millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars into the application process, such as

00:10:13.780 TransCanada did with the Keystone or other projects, that there, there is that certainty. There is that

00:10:19.960 idea that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes. I mean, Canada has become a place, and I've heard

00:10:26.160 this across, you know, many sectors and, and also from people that have worked in trade and, and, and some

00:10:32.880 people that have retired from those positions. Sometimes they can be a little bit more honest because they,

00:10:37.540 they know they're no longer on the, on the government payroll and a very similar theme in that, you

00:10:43.740 know, we we're not focused on creating an environment that is that is good for, for businesses and good

00:10:52.160 for investment. There's a lot of uncertainty for people investing in Canada. As you've mentioned,

00:10:57.780 we have very strict regulatory regimes that make it more difficult taxes, just interprovincial issues,

00:11:04.460 trade issues. And so it, it doesn't make it a very friendly environment to invest. And of course,

00:11:11.420 what we're, what we're focused on is, is making sure that we keep jobs for people that is at the end

00:11:17.360 of the day is making sure that people have good paying jobs, that they can support their family

00:11:21.520 and make decisions how they want to, to spend their money and, and live and make sure that, that our

00:11:27.920 businesses and especially small businesses as well are thriving. And so that's what our focus is,

00:11:32.780 you know, securing jobs, securing the economy and securing our future.

00:11:36.220 Absolutely. That makes total sense. But in order to get there, we need vaccines. And Tracy Gray,

00:11:41.340 Member of Parliament for Kelowna Lake Country in the beautiful province of British Columbia,

00:11:45.000 Canada is falling behind in its vaccine procurement. We are hearing very significant and I would say

00:11:53.200 startling stories out of the European Union in terms of their shipments to Canada. Maybe you can

00:11:58.520 tell us a bit about that. So what happened just last Friday was the European Union announced this new

00:12:06.220 mechanism where they're going to have a transparency register that will keep track of companies that will

00:12:13.300 be exporting vaccines. And national authorities can can move to block these exports if they consider

00:12:20.520 their company's commitments aren't being fulfilled within the EU. And also companies will need to apply

00:12:27.180 for authorization to export those, those doses. So because and they also announced that there were

00:12:34.100 more than 100 countries that are on an exemption list that will not have to, you know, this won't be

00:12:41.760 applicable for. So what the conservatives on the International Trade Committee did this weekend was call for an

00:12:49.900 emergency meeting because this was so important to have the minister come and testify, which did happen.

00:12:56.120 And thankfully, all members of that committee did agree to it. And so that committee was yesterday. We had the

00:13:02.460 minister and officials there yesterday. And we were really trying to understand why Canada is not on this

00:13:09.440 exemption list, what it means for us not to be on there. Are we asking to be on there? And those were some of the

00:13:19.000 key, key questions, including, you know, this all of this new paperwork and regime, is that going to delay us

00:13:25.120 getting our vaccines, even if we're still going to be getting them? And, you know, how is this all going to

00:13:31.240 play out? And basically, the answers that we kept getting were that, you know, they have verbal

00:13:36.240 assurances. Well, that's not that's not really enough, considering that other countries actually have in

00:13:42.920 writing that they are exempt from this. So it's very concerning.

00:13:45.660 Now, has the prime minister even spoken with the people at the European Union has have the

00:13:51.940 conversation taken place? Because this is something is quite scary, especially when you look at the

00:13:57.000 total percentage of population in Canada that are actually receiving the first dose of vaccine,

00:14:03.740 potentially not or the extended period of time till they get the second vaccine. And we have

00:14:08.920 communities that haven't received anything, especially in some rural areas. Is there any urgency on behalf of

00:14:14.720 the government? Well, we've heard both from the prime minister and from the minister that they

00:14:21.240 have spoken to their counterparts, and they have assurances. You know, however, you know, when asked

00:14:27.200 the question, are you being, are you asking that Canada be put on this list so that we actually have

00:14:33.160 true documentation, like those other countries? Have you asked the questions why we're not on that list?

00:14:38.860 You know, how can we actually have proper documentation in order to confirm that? And they haven't answered

00:14:47.780 those questions, and have said that we're not on, you know, we're not on the list. So it continues to

00:14:54.520 be concerning. We also have to remember that when we ask questions as to, you know, what vaccines we're

00:15:01.380 getting every week, you know, the Conservatives have asked for the plan. You know, we have these,

00:15:07.960 these large numbers with long timelines, but Canadians want to know, you know, I'm sure you're

00:15:14.140 getting it from constituents and you're writing, I am every day, when can I go get my vaccine? You know,

00:15:19.500 in particular seniors, I'm getting calls from people that are healthcare workers that, you know,

00:15:24.180 still haven't been vaccinated. So, you know, they want to know, can I go next week? You know,

00:15:28.780 and so we haven't seen the plan week by week, how many vaccines of what kind and where they'll,

00:15:36.800 will they'll be coming in from and where they'll be distributed. And so it gives people a lot of

00:15:41.500 anxiety. You know, they don't know, you know, when all of these lockdowns might be diminished. They

00:15:48.560 don't know when they'll have certainty of getting the vaccines. And so because the government is not

00:15:53.580 being transparent with this information, it creates a lot of frustration and a lot of anxiety

00:15:58.740 for people. Absolutely. I think the frustration is being felt and no matter what part of this,

00:16:05.800 this country you're, you're, you're from, there is a lot of frustration and, and, and we've been

00:16:10.900 in lockdown for over a year now. There, there are people dealing with a whole range of issues and I

00:16:16.200 think they want to see that light at the end of the tunnel. And the fact that the tunnel is quite

00:16:19.760 short because they are watching what's happening around the world. Tracy, we need to wrap up.

00:16:23.640 You have to go. You have question period coming up. You're on deck. It's going to be an awesome

00:16:27.760 question period. Make sure you stick around for it on the leaders channel. Uh, they will be sharing

00:16:31.660 it. Tracy, any final words? Well, just thank you very much for, for having me on. And these are

00:16:36.840 very important conversations. And I'm, uh, I'm really glad that you have the platform like this

00:16:41.340 to, uh, to get the word out to, uh, to our residents and to all Canadians. Well, we only have 0.91

00:16:47.040 the platform because people like you come on the show and help talk about the issues of the day,

00:16:50.760 because it's not always through the mainstream media. People get the right information or at least

00:16:54.960 the full story, or at least the underside of the story, which I think is very important. So Tracy

00:16:58.920 Gray, member of parliament, member of parliament, Kelowna Lake country, also the shatter minister

00:17:03.500 for export promotion and international trade. A good friend of the show been on before happy to

00:17:08.280 have you on again. Thank you for your time. And thank you for watching new content every single

00:17:13.460 Tuesday, 1 30 PM Eastern time, please like comment, subscribe, share this program. Maybe there's a

00:17:20.760 friend, a neighbor, someone in your social network that might be open to hearing the conservative

00:17:24.520 message. This is a great way to do that and ensure that Aaron O'Toole becomes the next prime

00:17:28.200 minister of Canada. And again, you can't watch it all now. Download it later on platforms like

00:17:34.120 cast box, iTunes, Google play, Spotify, you name it. It is out there. We are doing this. We want your

00:17:39.360 help. You are the hardcore. We appreciate it. Don't forget low taxes, less government, more freedom.

00:17:44.280 That's the blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - February 05, 2021

The “Buy American” Plan

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