Finance Committee on Oct. 28th, 2014

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

It's back now. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Ms. Kozhaya, you may resume your presentation.

[Norma Kozhaya]

Back to temporary foreign workers.

Despite laudable objectives, the changes to the program, in our view, may have negative repercussions on employers who are facing real problems.

Turning to the need to improve business productivity, the Industrial Technologies Office could support strategic innovation programs for manufacturing companies. And, of course, companies would appreciate continued implementation of the measures bringing regulatory and administrative relief and simplification.

Investment in infrastructure remains a major concern for employers in Quebec and Canada. In Quebec, a major infrastructure project is being undertaken, the replacement of the Champlain Bridge, and we encourage the federal government, the government of Quebec and the stakeholders to initiate a constructive dialogue to arrive at financing solutions. Even though the council agrees with the principle of tolls, it is important to have a harmonized approach and to take into account the fact that this is the replacement for an existing infrastructure. The federal government should also invest in public transit and related projects.

The situation regarding airports is another structural problem that needs examining. Particularly because of the various charges being imposed, the current situation puts Canadian airports at a clear disadvantage.

In addition, maximizing job creation is achieved through openness and market diversification. Therefore, the Quebec employers we represent are delighted at the various trade agreements and discussions, whether the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union, discussions with Korea or the Trans-Pacific partnership.

Finally, the Quebec Employers' Council would like to reiterate the importance for the federal government of stepping up its efforts to more effectively combat the smuggling of tobacco products in Canada. It is equally important that the government not yield to pressure to limit innovation in the industry, which would be to the detriment of consumers who might benefit.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much for your presentation.

Next we'll go to Ms. Lennox, please.

[Victoria Lennox, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me to discuss the issue of maximizing jobs in Canada. I'll make a brief statement and then I'll answer questions you might have afterwards.

I'm the co-founder and chief executive officer of Startup Canada, which is a grassroots, entrepreneur-led movement that brings together, celebrates, and gives a voice to Canada’s entrepreneurship community.

In 2012 we completed a cross-country tour during which we visited 20 cities and received input from 20,000 startups and entrepreneurs, from mompreneurs and artisans to manufacturing and high-growth tech entrepreneurs. With the feedback from these entrepreneurs we launched an entrepreneur connect strategy to improve entrepreneur access to support, mentorship, and resources and to help entrepreneurs communicate and connect experiences as they grow their ventures.

We have become a voice for entrepreneurs over the last two years and now are the go-to social media site for entrepreneurs in Canada. We have piloted startup communities across the country to strengthen community support for entrepreneurs and to share best practices. We're in Fredericton, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, York Region, London, Sault Ste. Marie, Winnipeg, Calgary, Nanaimo, and other communities.

We've heard from entrepreneurs that it's difficult for them to know where to go to access support for their businesses. Essentially what has been missing is an umbrella organization to connect the entrepreneur support infrastructure in Canada.

This is where Startup Canada plays a role. Startup Canada connects accelerators, incubators, colleges, universities, co-working hubs, entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and the necessary elements that foster an entrepreneurship culture and community in Canada. We have a mission to create jobs on an entrepreneurial basis.

We know that the rate at which we produce major entrepreneurial successes is directly correlated with the presence of a strong entrepreneurship community and culture. That's why we submitted a budget submission to this committee to ask for a partnership of $15 million over three years to help us reach more entrepreneurs.

Our Startup communities are led by entrepreneurs with a mandate to drive economic activity through entrepreneurship in their communities. They identify weaknesses and strengths in their communities and fill gaps as needed.

Many rural communities simply don't have the resources that urban communities have. For example, earlier this year Startup Smithers launched a venture fund with the local forest council to support entrepreneurial investment and retention in Smithers.

The communities across Canada are interconnected. They can leverage resources from each other and learn from each other. For instance, the strength of Waterloo in the high tech sector can benefit the strengths of the resource sector in Calgary.

Connecting entrepreneurs to this wealth of knowledge and these connections can help in creating jobs and innovation in Canada. We currently have 20 Startup communities in Canada. If we're successful in our budget submission, we will launch more than 100 Startup communities in urban and rural municipalities. This is the first pillar of our strategy.

The second pillar of our strategy is called Startup Connect. This is an online website that provides a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs to quickly and easily find and access support, space, finance, mentors, talent, events, news, and opportunities to grow their startups and grow jobs. Startup Connect helps entrepreneurs to easily identify and access support within and outside of their communities. We are already in talks with NRC concierge service to position Startup Connect as a communications vehicle and lead generator for federal government services for entrepreneurs.

The third pillar of our strategy is the installation of 1,000 community connect points across Canada. Community connect points are business support kiosks equipped with local community resources and online access to Startup Connect installed in business, economic development, and academic community spaces across Canada, including rural Canada, where support systems may be less accessible.

Together, Startup communities, the Startup Connect website, and physical access points across Canada will go a long way in building the foundations to connect Canada's entrepreneurship infrastructure and improve entrepreneurs' user experience of it.

In the past five years alone, the Government of Canada has invested billions of dollars to support innovation, commercialization, small business, and entrepreneurship. The Canadian accelerator and incubator program is a good example of this. However, investments to date are made in individual organizations, programs, industries, demographic segments, and regions, which while strengthening the individual nodes fails to connect entrepreneurs into these nodes and connect these nodes to each other.

I want to highlight that this failure is not government's alone, but also the private sector community's. We believe that by working together we can connect Canada's entrepreneurship ecosystem to ensure that every dollar invested is maximized to its fullest potential. A strong entrepreneurship ecosystem will only generate more economic activity, and this will create more jobs.

As closing remarks, we support any investments or measures that foster an entrepreneurship culture in Canada. We believe that cultivating a better ecosystem for entrepreneurship will lead to better and more jobs for Canadians.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much for your presentation.

Colleagues, I think we can provide the first four members with seven minutes, and we'll likely move to five-minute rounds after that.

We'll start with Mr. Cullen, please.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for being here today.

I'm so glad you mentioned the Startup Smithers, Ms. Lennox. It's in my home town. One of the questions that I had was around barriers.

I'm not sure I've come across the term “mompreneurs” yet. I assume it means what it sounds like it means.

Talking about barriers, particularly for women in the entrepreneurial market, do you ever survey your members or potential entrepreneurs around the aspect of child care, and particularly affordable child care, as being a consideration in whether a mom or future mom is able to enter in and become an entrepreneur?

[Victoria Lennox]

We've not yet surveyed our members. The Startup Connect platform that we are developing and are currently piloting has a feature where we're starting to survey our members who are part of that network. What we do know is that in our Startup communities women are disproportionately represented and find their way differently than the traditional Startup type community. We're making extra efforts to engage women in our programs, whether it's Startup Weekends or Startup...[Inaudible--Editor] and getting them out and building as part of the community. But certainly, they face different issues than men do.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Would you suggest that affordable child care for some is one of those issues?

[Victoria Lennox]

Absolutely. In Toronto, there's been a community coming together around women and mompreneurs who are sharing child care costs within a women incubator, so we see this Startup community mobilizing at the grassroots level to find solutions to the challenges they're facing.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

It would be very helpful if you passed some of the details of that group to the committee at some point.

What's the current contribution from the federal government to Startup Canada?

[Victoria Lennox]

We haven't received a contribution from the federal government. We're two years old and to date have raised $25 million in support from the private sector, organizations like Intuit Canada and Microsoft Canada, as well as the in-kind donations of 500 volunteers.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Just to be clear, zero is the answer to that?

[Victoria Lennox]

Zero.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Zero. Thank you for that.

Mr. Clark, I'm tempted to get into a very large conversation about the state of the global economy and its impacts on Canada as a trading nation. Let me zoom in on energy prices for a moment, something that occupies Ms. Cook's world as well.

As the federal government prepares its budget this year—and this is what we're engaged in right now—from what you're seeing of the global energy perspective, what would be a prudent price for Canada to assume for oil going ahead through this year and into the next? You made a number of allusions to IMF studies and the like. What would be prudent for Canada, and what is the impact on the Canadian treasury if we get the price wrong, if we overestimate the value of what we're going to get from our oil products?

[Scott Clark]

That's a good question and I'm sure the Department of Finance is busily trying to figure out what assumption they should make. It's hard to find what assumption they were making in the last budget, but when you track the price of oil since 2010 it's fluctuated above $100 a barrel. Now we're at roughly just over $80 on Brent and $70 on West Texas, so that's a really tough call. I would probably err on the prudent side, to be frank.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

So the prices that we're seeing right now or perhaps even lower?

[Scott Clark]

I would probably be either looking in the $80 to $85 range.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Just to back up a second, you said it was difficult to find what the assumptions were in the last federal budget round. What do you mean?

[Scott Clark]

Usually in the budget you can find interest rate assumptions, assumptions on U.S. growth, and so forth. I think there's a chart, but you can't find the price that was assumed each year going forward, so it's hard to—

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Was that the traditional with Canadian budgeting?

[Scott Clark]

No, it wasn't.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Would that be something helpful to those trying to understand what the government's assumptions are, for them to lay it out in black and white?

[Scott Clark]

Absolutely, because it goes to the second part of your question where you asked what if the price of oil were to come in at $80 for the next three years, instead of at $90 or $100? What would that do to government revenues, and it—

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Would it be advisable, then, for government to outlay some scenarios, that a $70 barrel, it expects this; at $80 or $90, it would expect this?