Transport committee  Thank you for the very informed question. I think we need to consider data as split into two very separate streams when we talk about connected cities. One is, as you mention, personal data that's identifiable to an individual and relates to the decisions that individual makes in interactions with government and with private sector companies.

Transport committee  Thank you very much. I think we also need to look at the tools that are available to the federal government and at how a strategy might guide the better implementation of those tools. We've heard from both my colleagues here about the need for flexible regulations that allow for experimentation across different products and technologies, and the availability of test beds across different communities.

Transport committee  The response isn't really about making money but is more in response to your question around empowering citizens. If we have a fully informed way of making infrastructure investment decisions, we'll be able to allocate resources to more important government services and services within the community.

Transport committee  Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning. A new set of technologies, including pervasive and ubiquitous connectivity, real-time sensors, precise location services, autonomous systems, and digital manufacturing are going to help transform life in our cities and our communities.

Industry committee  The model that certainly is prevalent in our industry is encouraging as many companies as you can, particularly through partnerships, whether it be through incubators or accelerators, and helping companies work through the skills they need to progress beyond their engineering innovation, their business skills or their marketing skills.

Industry committee  I think the undercurrent to the comments you've heard today rely not just on a conversation about big data but also the idea of scalability. Put simply, big data is this transformation we've had from having to buy a very expensive personal computer with very little capacity in the 1980s to being able to buy as much capacity as we need with the click of a button and the use of a credit card online.

Industry committee  Martin brought up drones, but I'll make a comment and then turn to him. My comment is that I'm really glad you brought up the agriculture industry, because for Canadians it's difficult to translate the impact of digital media and digital technology to what we consider an economy dominated by natural resources, and agriculture really has seized on the importance of GPS and the importance of cheap sensors that allow you to understand the soil on your farm to a degree where you can moderate acre by acre your fertilizer input and your other inputs.

Industry committee  I will start, but I will continue in English.

Industry committee  I think I've read the article that you're referring to by Mr. Balsillie and he raises some important points, especially about start-up companies and their capacity to tackle intellectual property, particularly patent challenges, as they look in the international market. My response to that article would be that we're talking about capacity building for entrepreneurs and innovators, and their ability to understand intellectual property provisions and to protect their innovations on a global scale.

Industry committee  Funnily enough, we have invested in alternative methods of generating power. For us, particularly when we're talking about transformational technologies, it really comes from this point of view: do we see an element of the science and the ability of the science to develop and to address a truly fundamental problem for society?

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  Sure. We refer to these tech hubs frequently today, and they are success stories because they provide that space where you have the researchers and academics, who may hold tenure but are looking for an opportunity to explore business ventures, and they can cross paths with business people.

Industry committee  I completely agree that you both have to emphasize the ecosystem as well as the ability within the constraints of government support and government programs to actually have a couple of failures or two under your belt. What we try to do is build that ecosystem from a young age all the way through to university and beyond, working in the community, as Wendy mentioned, with tech hubs like Communitech and Notman House in Montreal, but starting at an earlier age with programs, like Ladies Learning Code and Actua's Codemakers, to get them interested in the technology and working within a community of peers so they have those shared experiences.

Industry committee  It's an ambitious goal and one I share.

Industry committee  Exactly. Unfortunately we're taking baby steps in making sure we perfect the technology, but it is exactly the sort of technology that Martin was referring to that you build from small-scale manufacturing, with very specific components and very sophisticated systems, and do it in a way that can be expanded quite quickly to meet market demands.