Industry Committee on Feb. 13th, 2023

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you, deputy minister.

I wasn't aware of that change, or else I wouldn't have asked that question.

Finally, I see a line item for about $500,000 on funding for a business data lab. Why does ISED need $500,000 to fund a data lab? Is Statistics Canada not sufficient?

[Simon Kennedy]

We will have to get back on that.

To be frank, I'm not familiar with what that is. It may have a name I don't recognize, but we're happy to come back to the committee with an answer to the question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you very much, Mr. Kennedy.

Mr. Vis, that is all of your time.

We will now turn to our last questioner, MP Chiang.

[Paul Chiang, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank the witnesses for being here today.

What steps is your department taking to address the systemic inequity that remains present in our society? Can you share with this committee your collaboration with various communities, and how you have incorporated the diverse views of Canadians into your workplace?

[Francis Bilodeau]

I can start. Simon, please feel free....

In a number of ways, we have started touching on some of the elements. There were questions earlier around 50-30 and some of the programs that support diversity on boards and in companies. We touched on some of the programs specifically intended to support small business owners and small businesses among equity-seeking groups.

Certainly, we launched the women entrepreneurship strategy and the Black entrepreneurship program, so there's a suite of programs to ensure access to capital and supports.

At the same time, we have led work in our own department to try to lead by example. We have a chief diversity officer, for example, within our department, who is helping us put measures in place to make sure—Simon pointed to this earlier—that we, as an organization, also represent the diversity. We have also been working with some of the research and granting organizations. The tri-council granting organizations have put an EDI strategy in place, which they are pursuing to ensure there's support for researchers who come from equity-seeking groups.

Simon, I don't know whether you want to add to that.

[Simon Kennedy]

I would just say this is a topic we take very seriously, as my colleague explained. We try to take a holistic approach to addressing it, so there's a suite of programming facing the business sector and the community. There has been a lot of work inside the ministry to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are squarely on our agenda. We have an external advisory committee, with representatives from the private sector, academia and so on, to help us with this issue. We have a chief equity and inclusion officer, as my colleague explained.

We would be happy to provide more information. I'll just say there's a lot of activity. I wouldn't want to use up too much of the time, but there's a lot of activity trying to deal with these priorities.

[Paul Chiang, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you so much.

I represent the riding of Markham—Unionville, one of the most diverse communities across Canada, so it's very important that we, as a department and as government, work towards equity for all Canadians here. That's why it's important for me to ask this question.

In regard to artificial intelligence, could you elaborate, for this committee, on how the government is trying to be more proactive and look forward in our approach to emerging technologies and regulations? How are we protecting Canadians' privacy?

[Simon Kennedy]

I think I can answer in two parts, and my colleague might want to elaborate a bit.

One is that support for the Canadian artificial intelligence community and for research in this space is a real priority. The government has the pan-Canadian strategy for artificial intelligence, which it announced a number of years ago, and we've announced—I guess it was last year, but it was relatively recently—the next phase of the pan-Canadian strategy.

In that renewal of the strategy, we put an increased emphasis on actually translating the intellectual property that is developed—the ideas and the IP developed by our researchers—into use in the Canadian economy and by Canadian organizations. There are all kinds of really great examples of that happening in real time in hospitals, businesses and so on.

We've also put a priority on making sure that our researchers have access to the specialized computing power that's needed. There's been an effort in the second phase of the strategy to adapt and focus on areas that were considered to be maybe areas that weren't as strong in the first version of the strategy.

Then, on the legislative and regulatory front, the government has tabled Bill C-27. There's a whole section of that legislation that is a new proposed law on artificial intelligence, basically to ensure that AI is used responsibly in the economy. We're looking forward to discussion at committee and more as that bill advances through the parliamentary process.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you very much, Mr. Kennedy and MP Chiang. This is all the time we have today.

Thank you very much for joining us at committee this evening.

Unfortunately, Mr. Perkins, there is no more time. If you would have kept track, you would have noticed that I've been very liberal with Conservatives and very conservative with Liberals, because they have more access to ministers.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

On that note, the meeting is adjourned.