The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Hon. Pierrette Ringuette: Senator Bellemare, thank you again for sparking our imagination and prompting discussion about the Bank of Canada. You’ll recall that a few months ago, when the Governor of the Bank of Canada appeared before our committee, I asked him who he was consulting. He replied that he was consulting several Crown corporations and interdepartmental committees to gather as much information as possible.

Given the evolving nature of the economy, whether because of the pandemic, supply chains or the environment, do you think it’s a good idea for this advisory committee to be a permanent committee? Shouldn’t it instead be made up of ad hoc members, so as to capitalize on experts in whatever field the geopolitical or economic situation calls for?

Senator Bellemare: Thank you for the question. I think that this should be a permanent committee whose members serve a renewable three-year term so they have time to really get into the files. The bill states that the chosen experts must be able to demonstrate outstanding expertise in two of the five following areas: the labour market, open-economy macroeconomics, supply chains, the financial system and risk management. These are important areas of expertise from different backgrounds.

Let’s get back to transparency. In your question, the governor relies, as he said, on core inflation, a statistic whose accuracy is unknown. We’ve been told that this is a metric calculated by stripping out the most volatile components of the consumer price index, but what exactly is core inflation?

These are questions that a permanent committee could study and then explain to people, and this would build confidence around what the bank is doing.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Martin, will you take a question?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Order.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Colleagues, we will have some decorum, and we will continue this debate.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Cotter, I have three more senators who want to ask questions. Are you willing to answer questions?

Senator Cotter: I’d be pleased to, yes.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Honourable senators, do we have an agreement for five minutes?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Cotter, I have three senators on the second round. Do you wish to ask for five more minutes to answer these questions?

Senator Cotter: I’d be happy to ask for five more minutes and I’ll try to provide briefer answers.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Hon. Pierrette Ringuette: Would Senator Bellemare take a question?

Senator Bellemare: Absolutely.

Senator Ringuette: Let me start by congratulating you for introducing this bill, as well as on your speech.

I fully support the idea of having a socio-economic dialogue between the communities, the provinces and the federal government. In fact, I support dialogue between all our organizations.

However, I wonder if you could explain something about your proposal to create an advisory council. How will our remote regions, our Indigenous communities, our forestry workers, our agricultural workers and our fisheries workers have a voice? They have been affected, and are still being affected, by the changes to the EI system over the past 20 years. These changes have been made to the detriment of workers in these regions. How will they be included in the bill you’re proposing?

Senator Bellemare: Thank you for the question. I was anticipating it.

There was much discussion among all the groups. I had several Zoom meetings with the groups that helped me prepare this bill. The important thing was to find a way to reach the territories, First Nations populations, the remote regions, and so on. At first, we were looking for a way for the advisory council to be able to specifically include and connect with the Forum of Labour Market Ministers, while also including First Nations representatives. That was impossible for all sorts of legal reasons. The Forum of Labour Market Ministers has no legal status. What’s more, they’re not contributors. The group was concerned about ensuring that when we discuss Part 1, on contributions, it would be possible to invite groups from remote provinces or regions so that they could participate in the debate.

The federal tripartite council will be composed of a minimum of 12 members, including the two commissioners and five representatives from major associations. That’s the formula used by Quebec’s Commission des partenaires du marché du travail. It doesn’t include all the regions, but it is associated with regional councils and equity committees, so that’s a good starting point for responding to this major concern. Experience has shown that, from the outset, it’s essential to ensure that the tripartite issues of this large labour market system are considered.

This bill would give the council the power to invite whoever it wants to attend meetings. I think this will be what happens, since it’s important to bring the different parties together.

This is an advisory council, not a decision-making committee. The advisory council would have a mandate to provide advice and make recommendations to the commission regarding its assessment of programs and policies. The council could potentially also make assessments on its own initiative and present its findings to the minister and to Parliament.

This council will not manage employment insurance. We are not there yet. This is an advisory council that will support the two commissioners in carrying out their duties.

[English]

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Honourable senators, are we agreed?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Do honourable senators agree that we grant an additional five minutes, maximum?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: We are out of time, but we still have four senators who wish to ask questions. Senator Boniface, are you asking for five more minutes?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Boniface, you have 20 seconds left. Do you wish to ask for five minutes more? We have five more senators who want to ask questions.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Wells, you said that you have many questions. You will need to make your questions brief in order to give Senator McCallum an opportunity to ask her question.