Evidence of meeting #107 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was companies.
A video is available from Parliament.
Senior Policy Analyst, Canadian Cancer Society
Every year, tobacco use results in $4.4 billion in direct health care costs. The total, including indirect economic costs and health care costs, is $17 billion. So we will improve health and reduce illness and mortality, while also doing something very positive for the economy.
The reason the World Bank is so strongly in favour of the tobacco control is that it is good for the economy.
NDP
Pierre-Luc Dusseault NDP Sherbrooke, QC
I don't know if you avoided the subject on purpose, but are you essentially asking for the same thing for cannabis use? We know that the next budget will be in March 2018. So that is a few months after the legalization of cannabis, if things go according to schedule. Are you asking us to make substantial investments in fighting cannabis use?
Senior Policy Analyst, Canadian Cancer Society
With regard to cannabis, a great deal can of course be learned from the experience with tobacco, whether it be regulation, education or developing a global system and strategy, in particular as regards cannabis use by youth. Bill C-45 can do a great deal to control advertising, packaging, and illicit trade.
NDP
Pierre-Luc Dusseault NDP Sherbrooke, QC
Thank you.
I would like to talk about university research facilities. We have two good universities in Sherbrooke, one of them in my riding. Much good has already come from ideas developed at universities. I have more examples in engineering, but the same applies to other fields. I am referring to transforming certain ideas into business ventures.
I am wondering if you have any recommendations to help adapt university projects and bring them to the next level, which would help the students who created them. They could even create their own job later on by commercializing the products they developed.
Do you have any recommendations to improve the situation? I know good things are happening already, but what more could we do? What should the 2018 budget include in order to achieve that objective?
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Association of University Research Parks Canada
One of the items we highlighted in our budget submission was the intellectual property matchmaking program. There are lots of great ideas coming out of the institutions. A big part of the challenge is that there's not a great level of awareness of those opportunities to match companies with some of the researchers or the students who are taking on these projects or coming up with these new innovations and these new ideas. What we were proposing around IP matchmaking is having a database of sorts where you have an inventory of what intellectual property exists so you could transfer more of the technologies through to the business community to apply it in a commercialization environment.
We believe there's a great opportunity for this. We have been working with the INDU committee, who has been reviewing it, as well as ISED, who is reviewing the tech transfer policy as well as the IP policy. That's something we believe could have a significant impact, for fairly minimal input, to be able to get something going. It's really collecting the information and disseminating it appropriately to have significant outcomes.
As for the other opportunities for students in particular, we believe there's a great opportunity for an increase in co-op in all of the institutions. The University of Waterloo is exceptional at co-op placements. I know we've talked about apprentice programs, and certainly experiential learning is extremely critical because it shortens the gap for training requirements for companies, and training employees and students is costly. If we can reduce that time and get them up to speed sooner, there would be great advantages both for the students as well as for the businesses and thus the economy. Experiential learning would be another opportunity to look at with Sherbrooke and the others that you spoke about in terms of the great things that are happening there.
Finally, the last component would be working through the accelerator programs and the incubation spaces. Seventy-five per cent of the research parks have either incubation space or an acceleration program that is designed specifically to bring products to market more rapidly and to help students. Skunkworks is often where you have venture garage areas where students will come up with ideas and be partnered with companies specifically for that purpose, because they have great ideas and they just don't know how to necessarily get them to market. That's another avenue through the research park network that could be taken advantage of, and we are working with the folks in Quebec.
There's a group in Quebec, Univalor, that works on IP. It's a consolidation of all of the intellectual property and tech transfer activities in many of the institutions in Quebec. They are doing some pretty extraordinary things in terms of IP matching and driving technology transfer. We're working with them on the potential IP matchmaking program as an example of a network and consortium already working together to drive that.
Thank you.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want first of all thank the Cancer Society for their leadership on reducing tobacco usage. On the 31st of May this year on World No Tobacco Day, I stood up and spoke on the issue of tobacco use and focused in on the Northwest Territories in the north. Tobacco use is a huge problem there. We have places where we have up to 73% of the people smoking, and that includes young children.
I think that's going to change. We're seeing a lot of health issues as a result. I would ask you to elaborate on how your submission hopes to address this issue, especially in the north.
Senior Policy Analyst, Canadian Cancer Society
Thank you for the question, and thank you for your statement on World No Tobacco Day.
We're very concerned about the much higher rates among the indigenous population. We see much higher rates than the Canadian average in the three northern territories. We need a comprehensive strategy. We need to have engagement with indigenous communities directly. In the north, there's an issue with respect to remoteness, but there are certain messages that I think can resonate in terms of communication that are not currently being used.
In some cases youth need to be educated that modern cigarettes have nothing to do with traditional sacred use of tobacco. In many indigenous communities, many of our best policy measures and taxation measures do not apply. Now that's not the case in the Northwest Territories, but it is within provinces, so there's an opportunity through self-determination for first nations to adopt tobacco tax and keep the revenue equal to the provincial tobacco tax rate, and that's really important to reduce youth smoking.
There's a whole series of measures, and we can go into more detail, but we need to prevent youth from starting we need to offer cessation.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you.
I know that the campaigns work. I'm a product of a butt-out campaign in the Northwest Territories that was undertaken by the government about 13 years ago. They used images and signs and posters that could be put up in houses and schools. My children took the opportunity to post them everywhere in our house. I got tired of looking at the posters, but I also got the message that they wanted me to quit.
I know that they work. I think we could do better if we were better resourced to focus on youth, on pockets in different parts of Canada where there is high usage, such as the north and indigenous people. Do you think that's something that is achievable given the right amount of resources?
Senior Policy Analyst, Canadian Cancer Society
Absolutely. We can make tremendous progress.
In fact, there is some data from British Columbia that among indigenous youth in that province there have been some impressive declines. It's still much higher than non-indigenous youth, but there's an enormous amount that's available to do with the proper resources.
Director, Public Issues, Canadian Cancer Society
I would like to add something.
The smoking rate right now in Canada is still at 18%, which is stubbornly high. It's still 10% among youth between the ages of 15 and 19.
To add to what Rob was saying, there's a lot that can be done to focus our attention on these populations.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Mr. Chairman, I want to ask a question to the Business Council of Canada regarding federal measures to make Canadians more productive and increase the female labour force.
It's an interesting concept. I think that's something we need to do. I'm wondering, though, if that methodology could be applied to indigenous people. I don't see you focusing on indigenous people anywhere, yet we have huge numbers of unemployed people all over Canada. This is maybe something where this concept could work.
Vice-President, Policy, International and Fiscal Issues, Business Council of Canada
Regarding the recommendation for female labour force participation, the idea was that you have an income-tested system that supports child care.
The stats show that we are only spending between 0.2% and 0.34% of GDP on early child care education, which is below the OECD average. We saw an income test as a way to make sure that the people who need child care the most are getting access to it. The kick-on effect, of course, is that mothers who were staying home because of the cost of child care will have this additional resource, and that would encourage greater workforce participation.
I haven't thought about whether a similar tax credit system could be applied to encourage indigenous workforce participation, but I suspect there may be some application there.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Quickly, would that be something you would be interested in doing? If we're looking at making Canadians more productive, the indigenous population would be one that we should target also.
September 26th, 2017 / 5:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, International and Fiscal Issues, Business Council of Canada
Absolutely.
Just because it wasn't in this pre-budget submission doesn't mean it's not a priority. We covered this in our last pre-budget submission. It's a huge priority, particularly for companies in our membership that are in the resource sector that have locations or operations near indigenous communities. There's plenty of work that can be done to bring more indigenous people into the workforce.
Liberal
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Ms. O'Blenis, thank you for your testimony.
In it, you mention that it's important for entrepreneurial enterprises to be able to accumulate profit and savings within their enterprises, and to have that money available for them because of the instability of entrepreneurial activity in the innovative space.
How do you believe that the proposed tax changes will affect the ability of companies to do that?
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Association of University Research Parks Canada
Unfortunately, what seems to be on the table at this time is a bit of a disincentive for savings and achieving those profit levels. From our perspective, we know that consultations are still occurring and that there are other ideas that will be on the table.
At first glance, in terms of what's on the table at this time, the proposed tax rates—what would be left in organizations—would certainly be a disincentive for saving and achieving those profit levels that you could invest in research and development activities and actually reinvest back into your business to hire new people.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
I represent a lot of tech companies in the west end of Ottawa.
One of their concerns is that a lot of private equity and the purchase of patents in order to earn licensing income may be interpreted as passive income, and therefore will be taxed at these extraordinary rates.
Do you worry that having rates as high as 72% may act as a disincentive for investments in technology patents and the ability to set aside money to prepare for future investments?
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Association of University Research Parks Canada
Certainly tax rates at that level would absolutely have an impact.
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Association of University Research Parks Canada
It's a negative impact. You're not going to have the money if you're going to be taxed at a 72% rate because you're leaving money in your company or you take it out and you're taxed at your 40% or 50% tax bracket. It's terrible. It's not good, and it's not aligned with the good work that's being done from an innovation agenda perspective.
It's counterintuitive to all of the other great things that are being done to drive innovation and increase the technology transfer and commercialization and the many positive programs and policies that are in place right now.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
We're told, though, that these companies should just take the money out and put it in an RRSP if they want to save. How would that work for your members?
