Industry Committee on March 15th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Dicerni, thank you. I allowed you to go way over time because I know that was a complex question to answer, but it's almost a full minute over—actually, a little bit more than that.

Now we'll go to Mr. Richardson, who I believe is next, for five minutes.

[Lee Richardson, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I just had a couple of questions for clarification on the spectrum, again, and yesterday's announcement. In response to Mrs. Gallant's question about the frequency for first responders, is this the same frequency as the U.S. frequency?

[Richard Dicerni]

Yes, we'll try to target so that the firefighters.... If you take 911 as a reference point, to make sure the firefighters and the police are on the same wavelength and can communicate without any interruption, the same would apply in our case, if there is an emergency, if there is a problem, so that all first responders....

[Lee Richardson, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Yes, I know how it works; I was just curious about whether or not it would be.... I don't know if it's the same in the rest of the country, but out in Alberta we seem to get that American frequency. I think some of our first responders actually even use it about 100 miles north of the border.

It would be a seamless link, would it?

[Richard Dicerni]

Helen McDonald, ADM of the Spectrum, has been dealing with the U.S. on this, and can perhaps....

This is Helen McDonald, assistant deputy minister of Spectrum.

[Helen McDonald, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications, Department of Industry]

Thank you.

The U.S. has not formally started using its 700 megahertz public safety spectrum. It has just passed a bill that provides financing for the build of the network. We are going to try to follow as closely as we can so that the equipment that's being developed can be used on both sides of the border, across our different forces, and with each other where we need to help.

You might be referring to what's called “narrowband”; there are slivers of 700 megahertz that are already in use for public safety across Canada, but it tends to be equipment that doesn't interoperate. Everyone buys their own system, and they develop their networks separately, so interoperability is missing today.

[Lee Richardson, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Thank you.

On the same point—now, it was such a good answer that I forget what my next question was. Oh, and is this, then, a secure band, or a restricted band, or could anybody jump in?

[Helen McDonald]

It would essentially be up to public safety how they want to use the band. They may decide they want to build in partnership with the private sector or just have a private sector developer build it for them. There may be some instances in which they have some spare capacity that they want to let others use, such as hydro workers or other sectors of the economy that might be involved in an emergency response.

[Lee Richardson, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Great.

Okay, thanks.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Carmichael, did you have...?

[John Carmichael, Conservative, Don Valley West, ON]

Yes, thank you.

Mr. Dicerni, the minister spoke to some incentives and some facilities for entrepreneurship that had been placed by our government, and then further there was some discussion around the red tape reduction commission and some of the things it's doing for small business and for entrepreneurs.

I wonder if you could talk to us about how the government is working to simplify processes for small business, which is something we heard a lot about in the hearings we held earlier, and maybe expand on what the minister told us.

[Richard Dicerni]

I feel I could not do justice to the eloquence that Minister Bernier would bring to the specific matter you have raised, so I would commend to all members recent speeches and statements Minister Bernier has made, because he's quite passionate on the issue of reducing red tape and permitting business to be more able to do its job as a job creator.

In terms of red tape and so forth, Minister Clement and Minister Bernier recently—two or three months ago—put forth a government policy in regard to new regs, especially as they relate to burdens on business. The details have to be worked out, but going forward, when governments bring forth regulations that will create a burden on small business in terms of reporting or otherwise, they will have to identify an offsetting instrument so that the overall burden on small business is not increased in terms of the reporting relationship.

[John Carmichael, Conservative, Don Valley West, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you, Mr. Carmichael.

Mr. Côté, you have five minutes.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

First, I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here and for giving me the opportunity to ask some questions related to my responsibilities. I'm actually the counterpart of Mr. Bernier, the Minister of State, Small Business and Tourism.

I'll start by talking about the Canadian Tourism Commission. The department has made new reductions in grants. Unfortunately, these are still cutbacks. We cannot ignore the fact that, in the last 10 years, funding to the Canadian Tourism Commission has decreased significantly. In 2001, for example, the budgetary allocations were $98.7 million. Unfortunately, the allocations planned for the next fiscal year are barely $72 million. In absolute dollars, that's a significant decrease, but when we consider inflation, we're talking about draconian cutbacks over the past 10 years.

Despite the pride my counterpart showed during the presentation of Canada's federal tourism strategy, which is still full of good intentions and interesting things, it seems to me that we are clipping our wings and reducing our ability to support the increase of tourism in Canada.

[Richard Dicerni]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that. There are different ways of stimulating and encouraging tourism. The government's allocations to the Canadian Tourism Commission are one aspect of that. There are other areas that the government prioritizes and that, I think, deserve to be highlighted. Take for example the agreement that the Prime Minister signed with the Chinese authorities to increase tourism between the two countries. I think that agreement will provide good results.

The strategy you put forward will also encourage better cooperation among the various departments. It will also provide a good boost to tourism. You have probably seen that the strategy includes the publication of a report.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

That's right.

[Richard Dicerni]

We will report on what happens. I think there will end up being an increase in transparency in the actions of the various departments to support tourism.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

But, Mr. Dicerni, we can agree on one thing: the Canadian brand is excellent around the world. Still, we need to support that, we need to attract people. While Canada is drastically cutting its promotion budget—this is the role of the Canadian Tourism Commission—I'm seeing countries like Ireland and Greece invest almost double, which seems a little ridiculous to me. It's as if we were trying to acquire Canada's brand, when in reality Canada has been declining for years as an international tourism destination, compared with other countries that are emerging very quickly. You aren't alleviating my concerns at all.

[Richard Dicerni]

I must admit that I didn't think I could alleviate your concerns.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you for confirming that.

[Richard Dicerni]

I was simply trying to provide some additional information.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I think that limiting the Canadian Tourism Commission to that extent is a very bad way to go, especially since it went from 159 employees in 2006 to 122 employees as part of its new redevelopment plan.

One thing bothers me a lot. I'm mentioning it so I can to share this information with all my colleagues. It's the fact that international tourism brought in $15 billion in 2010, which equals $50 million on average for each riding, for barely $250,000 in investments or allocations granted. I think that performance is excellent. Even if we limited ourselves to an 25% increase, that would be a fraction compared with the enormous benefits. It's new money; tourism is an export product. It will yield a significant amount compared with the investment it would represent.

Neglecting tourism to this extent is a political decision. I fully acknowledge that there are other aspects, but the direct investment is what yields the most, in my opinion.

[Richard Dicerni]

That's certainly one way of looking at it…

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Monsieur Côté, Monsieur Dicerni, we're quite over the time. I was just waiting for a natural break here.