Finance Committee on Nov. 5th, 2009

[Daryl Kramp, Conservative, Prince Edward—Hastings, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

Now I'll go to our scientific community presenters. Thank you so kindly. Obviously, you are the future of the country. As you said, without innovation, really, we cannot compete. So we thank you very much.

I'm particularly pleased to see your third recommendation. We want to take a broad cross-section. It is certainly not accurate in totality, but in R and D we're decent. We're not at the bottom of the heap, we're not at the top, but we do very well. But in incubation, we are just not efficient. In commercialization, we're dreadful. By being able to build those strategic partnerships and tie in the entire process so that you are part of that overall solution I think is certainly going to bear fruit for you. I would ask that you be mindful to keep up that direction. I think it's a good point.

Going to my previous comment, your proposal is sort of open-ended. There's not an ask. I'm sort of listening here, flying in the wind and saying, okay, what do you need? We have a budget. This is a budget presentation. We have to make a recommendation to our finance department on behalf of the entire committee. Where are we going? What do you need? How can we help?

[Dr. Chad Gaffield]

Thank you.

As federal government agencies, I think our mission is to optimize the money we get and also to suggest the opportunity for increased contributions. I think our sense here today is to share with you our vision of what I like to call the 21st century paradigm of building smart communities, smart regions, and a smart country. It is also to indicate the potential for significantly increased contributions, particularly in this time of economic recovery and when we're looking toward a new place for Canada in the 21st-century world.

[Daryl Kramp, Conservative, Prince Edward—Hastings, ON]

But what's significant? Significant in your mind, in my mind, for the finance minister, or for John Q. General Public is different. Are we talking about $3 billion or $300,000?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McCallum]

A very brief response, please.

[Dr. Suzanne Fortier]

I'll give a brief response. I think this has to be located on how much we want to up our game, if I can use those words. What I observe around the world is that those who want to up their game significantly because they're way behind—and we see that in countries like China, for example—have targets like doubling their budget in the next five years and so on.

There are others who feel they're in a very good position that they want to maintain. They may have targets of doubling in seven years. This is the way I think we need to look at that. It needs an assessment of where we are and where we want to be.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McCallum]

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kramp.

We'll have Mr. Pacetti. We have a shortened round.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witnesses. I'm going to try to get through it with a couple of quick questions.

Mr. Lazar, you spoke about there being a problem with private investment being held up. I'm just wondering, is that because there's little or low chance of a return on investment, or is it because there's no capital out there?

[Avrim Lazar]

It's both. If you look right now, there's very little capital out there, but as markets are returning, there is going to be global competition that is fiercer than we've seen in a generation. Everyone is going to compete fiercely for the little bit of money that's going to be invested, and the quality of the business conditions is going to be a major determinant.

One of the reasons why the accelerated capital depreciation would work now is because speed of return is going to be a bigger consideration than it was before the recession because everybody's hurting.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Who are you competing against for that private capital? Are you competing against other sectors, or are you competing against international competition?

[Avrim Lazar]

It's both. Obviously we're competing with other parts of the forest industry internationally, but also, money is pretty free. It could go anywhere.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Zarins, just quickly, I've been a member for quite a while and I know your association has asked for a national standard on helmets. I know that in Quebec they're obligating people to have helmets on ski hills. I'm a hockey coach and they have obligated us to have helmets. What has been the problem with having a national standard?

[Harry Zarins]

I'll get specific with the alpine and snowboard helmets. CSA has developed a standard, and the standard has not yet been put on the market in terms of saying the standards we want Canadians to purchase are standards we're developing in Canada. Those are the ski and snowboard helmets, and that has not been—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Is that at the Canadian level or the provincial level? Is that the national level?

[Harry Zarins]

That's the national level.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Who has to put that forward? Health Canada?

[Harry Zarins]

Health Canada, yes.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

Quickly, Mr. Halpin, you were saying that the Atlantic universities have about 7,000 international students?

[Peter Halpin]

Yes. It is 7,338, to be exact.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

In terms of percentage with the rest of Canada, would yours be higher than in other areas or regions?

[Peter Halpin]

I think our numbers are about average. International student enrollments increased right across the country in this current academic year.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

How many of those would actually want to stay or be eligible to stay?

[Peter Halpin]

What we understand from the Canadian Bureau for International Education...this is a little more anecdotal than the Citizenship and Immigration Canada numbers, but we understand that about 30% will apply for permanent resident status either during their studies or upon graduation.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

In conclusion, Ms. Fitzgerald, you talked about leverage funding. How successful is CIHR in being able to get leverage funding, and what are we talking about? Is it dollar for dollar? For every dollar of funding that CIHR puts into a project, you'll get how much? Does it depend?

[Christine Fitzgerald]

It depends on the project, and I mentioned today we—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

So what would the range be? Would it be dollar matching? How low would you go?