Industry Committee on June 6th, 2013

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

The only concern I have is that's only as good as the first breach.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

That's the last word.

Mr. Regan, for four minutes, please.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Cousens, you talked about how the trend these days is toward social, mobile, and cloud. The CEO of BlackBerry, Mr. Heins, has been talking about the future of mobile computing here and globally. He believes that “...our private sector players, large and small, have to lead the way to the mobile computing revolution”, especially in terms of innovation and R and D.

Do you think that large and small organizations, or companies in particular, have an equal ability, opportunity, and responsibility to lead in this area? What should the federal government's role be?

[John Cousens]

Once again, I think we need to be adopters of it. At a government level, we need to be consuming it. A BlackBerry, iPad, or any of these devices is not merely there to e-mail and play solitaire. It's a device that you can run a business on, and this is what truly innovative companies are doing. So, for the government to be a model leader.... We have innovation coming in different segments of this marketplace throughout Canada in social, in mobile, and in cloud. If the government becomes an adopter and uses this well, I think you'll see that the small and medium enterprise community will also embrace it.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Michael Geist was here not too long ago and mentioned Canada's lack of a comprehensive digital strategy. He saw that as a failing on the part of the government. South Korea has developed a uKorea initiative as its own aggressive industrial policy. Also, India has a national e-governance plan. What do you think we can learn from countries like these and their strategies? What is the government—or is Canada's government causing the country to fall behind in these areas, in the digital world?

[John Cousens]

The confluence of those technologies, right now, as we've talked about, is driving economies and connecting people. If you can have nations fall because of collaboration with social media...the power of it is immense. Not to recognize that and the benefit of that within the context of operating a business is a barrier for Canadians to adopt new technology and also compete. Other nations are driving that out, that ability to collaborate new and different ways at a corporate level. Wherever we are, it is a globally connected world. Once you touch the Internet, you're going through many different countries.

Data at rest versus data in motion is a very different thing. If you have a laptop and you travel to the U.S. and you're doing e-mail, your data is going all over the place. It is a reality. Without a strong message from this country to not look at what's happened in the background here in Ottawa, where I've grown up, and to look at the tech and where that's disappeared to, I think we deserve to be right at the front of that leadership, and we need that from the top down. We also need a decision on a policy that will drive us to embracing these technologies. The government needs to be the adopter of that, as well as an example.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Are you thinking of Nortel when you talk about...? You're just smiling. You're not going to answer that question, I think. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much, Mr. Regan.

On to Madam LeBlanc, for four minutes.

[Hélène LeBlanc, NDP, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you very much.

It's very exciting that we are talking about things that are actually in the news. I think it follows nicely on the e-commerce study we did. We did the IP. We talked a lot about innovation and things like that. That's why I'm proposing:

That the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology undertake a two-day study of the rules governing spectrum allocation, the transfer of spectrum licences, unused spectrum, and their effect on competition in the wireless market, in anticipation of the 700Mhz spectrum auction, and that the committee report back to the House.

I am asking for unanimous consent to discuss this motion in public.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Braid.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I find this most unfortunate. It's five o’clock. We had agreed at the outset, when the agenda was developed, that we would deal with committee business 15 minutes from now, at 5:15 p.m., when this matter was scheduled to be discussed. It's unfortunate that the NDP isn't concerned about the adoption of digital technology among SMEs, because we still have 15 minutes dedicated to that, and I and Madam Gallant still had a round of questions we were going to pursue.

Given that committee business in this committee, as in every other committee on the Hill, was scheduled to be dealt with in camera, and in this case in 15 minutes, I will move that we go in camera to discuss this matter.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

It's a dilatory motion.

Mr. Masse, there has been a motion to go in camera.

[An hon. member]

I would ask for a recorded vote, please.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)

Witnesses, thank you very much for your information. We greatly appreciate it.

[Proceedings continue in camera]