Two months on from the bruising loss of a Liberal heartland seat and weeks before another test for the government in the form of another by-election, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP, Patrick Weiler was guarded in responding to whether he had seen the sort of ‘reflection’ by party leadership he had called for previously.
“I would just stand by my comments that I made back in June,” he said.
“While there was the cabinet retreat this week, we are going to be having our national caucus retreat a couple of weeks from now in Nanaimo, so those are certainly discussions we’ll be picking up at that point. Certainly everything I said back in June stands today.”
In June, Weiler had responded to the loss of Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election saying it was a riding the party had “no business losing”, and said he expected “serious reflection” on the direction of the government by the Prime Minister.
What that reflection looked like he wouldn’t be drawn on two months later, and a few weeks before another by-election, this time in Quebec, where the Liberal Party is hoping to hold on to the riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, itself another litmus test for the Liberal government.
Having noted the cabinet retreat in Halifax in August and the upcoming caucus retreat in Nanaimo, Pique queried Weiler on some of the policy changes that came out of the Liberal leadership over the last few days as a result of the cabinet retreat, such as moves to make stricter the rules around the temporary foreign worker program, and the announcement of massive tariffs on the import of Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Weiler said that the situation had changed in Canada since the immediate years after the pandemic, necessitating a tightening of rules around immigration following a few years of massive intake.
“We’re in a very different scenario at this point. The labour shortages are not there the way they were before, and I think it makes sense to make changes to these programs, to adapt to the current reality that we’re seeing today.”
Weiler added that his own riding was a different kettle of fish to major urban centres however, noting the heavy reliance on the service industry in the region.
“I know not everybody is in agreement with this, particularly businesses in Whistler there’s a big reliance on the temporary foreign workers program, (though) moreso on the holiday working visa program. Those are going to continue to be important parts for the workforce and for businesses in Whistler.”
Asked about how the government would juggle the competing interests of immigration policy with the needs of the industry in the local region, Weiler pointed to the need for more granular employment data, saying that while unemployment in the Lower Mainland was at around six per cent, in the Sea to Sky it could often drop as low as two per cent.
“It’s a very different circumstance, so these changes are more going to have a big impact in more urban areas where you’re seeing higher unemployment, particularly with youth and new immigrants.”
The current minister for workforce development, Randy Boissonnault, was also previously the tourism minister - something Weiler said worked in the region’s favour.
“I speak to him frequently about this. In many respects Whistler and Squamish, and to a certain extend Pemberton are fairly unique in the country, so sometime you need to look at things a bit differently and one of the aspects that’s important in this is just making sure you have localized labor market data, and we do have that now for the Sea to Sky.
Under the changes, the government will not process Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) foreign worker permits for low-wage positions in areas that have unemployment rates higher than six per cent, while employers will have a cap on how many temporary foreign workers they can hire as a percentage of their workforce.
Another recent announcement on an issue Weiler has previously made a point of campaigning on is in the electric vehicle space, with the government announcing the introduction of 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese-made EVs.
Weiler has often spoken of the importance of competition in the EV space, and the proliferation of cheaper, easily-accessible options to internal combustion vehicles.
Asked about how the government could make EVs more affordable while imposing high tariffs on EVs from a country that has the largest EV market in the world and therefore produces cheap vehicles, Weiler acknowledged the complexity, but said it came down to protecting Canadian interests in developing the same industry.
“On the one hand you want to make sure people have access to the range of electric vehicles to suit what they’re looking for … But, China is vastly overproducing electric vehicles, and there’s a risk of dumping into other areas as a way of crowding out the EV manufacturing industries in different countries, and that's a huge risk for Canada.”
While cheap Chinese EV brands are not currently selling EVs in Canada, there are many Chinese-made luxury EVs already on Canadian roads. Teslas made in China do make it to Canadian shores — and they will be hit by the same tariffs. Brands such as Polestar are also made in China, along with many of Volvo’s electric models.
Weiler said it still came down to protecting Canadian jobs — and Canada’s relationship with the United States, which also recently introduced high tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
“The other part that is critically important here is we have an integrated automotive sector with the United States, and the United states brought in a hundred per cent tariff as well, and if Canada didn’t bring in those tariffs it would become a massive trade irritant with the united states, so there wasn’t a lot of degree of flexibility for what we could do here.”
Overall, Weiler stressed that the ongoing cost of EVs remained cheaper than the lifetime cost of an internal combustion vehicle, and that cost was only going to come down over time.
But, the need for cheap EVs while applying tariffs would remain a “fine line to walk” in the meantime.
“There will still be potential for Chinese EVs to come into Canada but still subject to that tariff. There will be a role for the government to have incentives to lower the price for EVs in the short term, at least the initial upfront price so they are cost-competitive.
“It’s important that we maintain our trade relationship with the United States, and important that we protect Canadian jobs, particularly as this industry is very nascent in Canada, which will be able to supply Canadian needs, but it's going to take a number of years to really evolve to where we want it to be.”
