HRAI Takes Industry Priorities to Parliament Hill

As it has done for a number of years, HRAI made a submission in May to the federal government’s pre-budget consultation process (See Submission).  The requests of the government were informed by members and vetted by the HRAI Policy and Priorities Committee.  In summary, HRAI’s four budget themes were:

  1. 1. Safeguard Canada’s HVACR sector from trade conflicts with the United States by avoiding tariff escalation through proactive negotiations, exempting HVACR goods if retaliatory tariffs are necessary, and by diversifying trade partners and investing in domestic manufacturing.
  1. 2. Strengthen and expand the skilled HVACR workforce through the creation of a retraining fund and supporting the pursuit of residential trade certification for the HVACR sector.
  1. 3. Invest in the health of Canadians by improving Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) through the development of IEQ standards and certification as well as investing in a national IEQ awareness campaign.
  1. 4. Unlock energy savings and emissions reductions potential through more effective building retrofits by looking to the HVACR industry to guide and better target incentive programs. 
  2.  

In light of the announcements made as part of the Spring Economic Statement about support for trades training and apprenticeship and some rumblings about development of incentive programs, a couple of these requests suddenly became quite time sensitive.  Knowing that Parliament would soon be rising for summer break and that the budget might well be finalized early in the fall, the HRAI GR team decided to seize the opportunity to meet with federal leaders immediately.

The most time-sensitive matters of concern were:

  • The need to broaden the scope of support under the “Team Canada Strong” initiative that was announced in the Spring Economic Statement in April.  As currently framed, the program will apply to red seal trades apprentices and their employers only.1 HRAI is pressing to include all compulsory trade certifications in our sector (e.g. 313D and 308A in Ontario).

  • Promoting the “principles of good incentive program design” message (See Document) to government, on the presumption that (despite official words to the contrary) NRCan and ECCC are contemplating a consumer rebate program for later this year, or possibly in early 2027. 

 

For these reasons, on June 16th an HRAI delegation comprised of Victor Hyman (Chair of the Policy and Priorities Committee), Martin Luymes (VP, Government and Stakeholder Relations) and Abhi Kantamneni (Director, Government and Stakeholder Relations) brought the association’s policy and spending asks directly to government leaders.

The HRAI team met with top advisors to Minister of Finance Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Julie Dabrusin, as well as MP (Con) Carol Anstey (Long Range Mountains, Newfoundland and Labrador) of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, MP (Lib) Judy Sgro (Humber River, Black Creek), Chair of the Standing Committee on International Trade, and MP (Lib) Ali Ehsassi (Willowdale), member of the standing committee on international trade.

In addition, HRAI met with Benoit Tessier, Director General of the CUSMA Secretariat to relay industry concerns about trade and tariffs, and to share some early findings from its research into non-tariff barriers to trade with the European Union.  These issues were also discussed with the office of the Minister of Finance and the members of the Standing Committee on International Trade.

Finally, HRAI met with Director General Ben Copp and his senior leadership team at the Office of Energy Efficiency at Natural Resources Canada.

During a very productive day of meetings, the messaging delivered by HRAI landed well with all the federal leaders that took the time to listen.  Minister of Finance advisors even commented that HRAI arrived at “exactly the right time” to still have some influence on the direction that will be taken in the coming budget.

For more information, contact Martin Luymes at mluymes@hrai.ca or call 416-453 5899.

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