Industry Committee on May 10th, 2012
Evidence of meeting #30 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was patent.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Sylvain Laporte Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trade-marks and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Department of Industry
- Gerard Peets Senior Director, Strategy and Planning Directorate, Strategic Policy Sector , Department of Industry
- Konstantinos Georgaras Director, Policy, International and Research Office, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Department of Industry
- Agnès Lajoie Assistant Commissioner of Patents, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Department of Industry
- Denis Martel Director, Patent Policy Directorate, Strategic Policy Sector , Department of Industry
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
10:30 a.m.
Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trade-marks and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Department of Industry
I would maybe offer an opinion that Canada has actually something that they are aspiring to. So they're going to take the next four to five years to implement this new America Invents Act to actually align themselves with a legal framework that is closer to the Canadian framework.
But Canada is also closer to the rest of the world, so the United States is actually coming to the rest of the international community. I'm not saying that there aren't areas in their legal framework that would be beneficial to us, but principally, from a big-picture perspective, they're in a bit of a catch-up mode.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair David Sweet
Thank you very much, Mr. Laporte and Mr. Braid.
I have one quick question, because we've asked around it. On the World Intellectual Property Organization, do you sense there's good momentum internationally for harmonization of the regulatory regimes? Obviously, that's a huge advantage for corporations to have an equal playing field in which the regulatory regime in each country is similar.
10:30 a.m.
Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trade-marks and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Department of Industry
I guess there are two perspectives to your answer: a policy perspective and an administration perspective. From an administration perspective there's quite a tremendous amount of effort to harmonize our various legal frameworks to make sure that we can operate a lot more smoothly from a global perspective. The World Intellectual Property Organization is at the centre of this, and they've made material progress, in understanding that it's hard to rope in 184 different countries. But they've been successful in the past with some major global agreements that we've adhered to, so it's been quite fruitful for us to participate in those forums.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair David Sweet
Great. That's good news. As long as there's the momentum, it may be complex but if the momentum is there and we see some movement, then that's fantastic. Thank you very much to the witnesses.
We're going to suspend for just two minutes to allow the witnesses to move away from the table, if they like, and then we're going to deal with the votes on the estimates. So we'll suspend for two minutes.
May 10th, 2012 / 10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair David Sweet
I'll call the meeting back to order to deal with this last portion of business. Perhaps we could take our seats and we'll deal with our votes on estimates.
It looks like we have agreement on our shortened process here.
INDUSTRY
Industry
Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$320,477,000
Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$7,139,000
Vote 10—Grants and contributions..........$724,565,000
Vote L15—Payments pursuant to subsection 14(2) of the Department of Industry Act ..........$300,000
Vote L20—Loans pursuant to paragraph 14(1)(a) of the Department of Industry Act ..........$500,000
Canadian Space Agency
Vote 25—Operating expenditures..........$163,079,000
Vote 30—Capital expenditures..........$152,535,000
Vote 35—Grants and contributions..........$36,597,000
Canadian Tourism Commission
Vote 40—Payments to the Canadian Tourism Commission..........$72,033,000
Copyright Board
Vote 45—Program expenditures..........$2,815,000
Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Vote 50—Operating expenditures..........$26,588,000
Vote 55—Grants and contributions..........$188,934,000
National Research Council of Canada
Vote 60—Operating expenditures..........$323,633,000
Vote 65—Capital expenditures..........$34,949,000
Vote 70—Grants and contributions..........$169,416,000
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
Vote 75—Operating expenditures..........$42,357,000
Vote 80—Grants..........$998,918,000
Registry of the Competition Tribunal
Vote 85—Program expenditures..........$2,161,000
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Vote 90—Operating expenditures..........$23,514,000
Vote 95—Grants..........$661,839,000
Standards Council of Canada
Vote 100—Payments to the Standards Council of Canada..........$7,629,000
Statistics Canada
Vote 105—Program expenditures..........$385,523,000
(Votes 1, 5, 10, L15, L20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, and 105 agreed to)
ATLANTIC CANADA OPPORTUNITIES AGENCY
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$74,337,000
Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$225,214,000
Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation
Vote 10—Payments to the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation..........$57,268,000
(Votes 1, 5, and 10 agreed to)
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF CANADA FOR THE REGIONS OF QUEBEC
Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec
Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$43,169,000
Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$252,053,000
(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to)
WESTERN ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION
Western Economic Diversification
Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$43,223,000
Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$123,496,000
(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to)
Shall the chair report votes 1 to 105 under Industry; votes 1, 5, and 10 under Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency; votes 1 and 5 under Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec; and votes 1 and 5 under Western Economic Diversification, less the amounts voted in interim supply under Industry, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, and Western Economic Diversification, to the House?
10:35 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair David Sweet
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
Without anything further, we're adjourned.