Finance Committee on Oct. 16th, 2018

[Jeanette Jackson]

Thank you.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

It's a good place to be.

You referenced the small amount spent on clean tech regardless of the budget allocation, so there's obviously a real bottleneck there. You've identified, on the federal government side, the importance of providing funding so that people know how to navigate through the channels.

But there's a greater concern, and that is with the federal government. We have systematic problems with actually providing the funding to everybody from public servants—through the Phoenix pay system, as many public servants aren't being paid—to the federal government paying its accounts for disaster relief. There's the Port Mann Bridge. Recently the federal government was the biggest deadbeat in terms of actually paying the tolls on it. There's an overall problem, and I think we're responsible to try to fix it.

For the clean tech sector, what are the impacts of not having that funding available for these companies? Monies were budgeted and there's a great photo op around that, but the monies don't actually go out to provide funding to these companies.

You mentioned one example of companies simply not being able to sustain a project. What are other examples that you could give us?

[Jeanette Jackson]

One of the funds is about $540 million. In two years, about $40 million has been disbursed. One of the biggest overarching challenges from a Canadian economic sustainability perspective is that those announcements are made and companies get excited. They go to their prospective customers and say that there are going to be opportunities here; let's line up some projects; let's get some matching funds. Then time continues to go by and confidence is lost from potential buyers of our Canadian technology exports.

There are so many different ways we can try to solve that problem. Right now it seems as though a few people are holding the decision-making card on when and how those funds are going to be disbursed.

We know that some mechanisms to use include the B.C. model, like what happened with the $100 million B.C. clean tech, or B.C. tech money. Once the application is made, knowing when the decision will come is definitely one piece. From there, knowing how long it will take to actually get the funds disbursed and under what terms....

I think this can happen quite easily. There are a lot of organizations like us. We're supporting hundreds of these. There are 850 clean-tech companies—way more now because everything is clean tech.

We're trying to connect with as many levels of government as we can to understand how we can help facilitate the process. Our goal is to not have tax funding going straight to the companies. It's that they will work on the matching piece so that we know it's a viable business opportunity.

It's becoming quite detrimental. Canadians are also moving outside of the country. They're taking their companies to other regions—Australia, the U.K. and obviously the U.S. as well.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Those are pretty eloquent statistics. That's $540 million—half a billion dollars—and only $40 million actually disbursed after two years. That's half a billion dollars in lost economic potential, multiplied by what those projects would have leveraged. Thank you.

I'm going to go to Mr. Ling and Mr. Wouters for the Terry Fox centres. You do phenomenal work. We do know, though, that for environmental reasons, cancer rates are increasing. Fortunately, cure and survival rates are also increasing and that's thanks to your good work. What outcomes do you see with the $150 million over five years? If we could wave a magic wand and provide that funding to you, where would we be in five years? What specific outcomes would you anticipate?

[Dr. Victor Ling]

Why don't I answer quickly at a high level and then Brad can also chime in for the cancer-centre level?

Number one, we will harmonize the cancer centres across Canada to align everything they do in innovation together, so that we will be one powerful network as a team. Not only will that allow us to do better precision medicine but every part of the country will benefit, including rural and hard-to-reach areas. We are budgeting to make sure that all the outreach programs will get to all these areas as well. That's one.

The training program would be incredible. People could move across the country and get the best training in everything that a network can offer.

Third, I would say that some of the competitiveness of the Canadian system, in which we have a health care system that allows us to collect data from all our people, including indigenous people, will be available for other people, other scientists and physicians to take advantage of within the network.

The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is one of the top five cancer centres in the world. That centre will be able to share its knowledge and advances with the rest of the country.

Brad, maybe you want to say a few words on that.

[Dr. Bradly Wouters]

I'll just say three things quickly. One is that it will affect patients immediately within that time period, because patients who are part of that genetic testing and imaging will be eligible for different options for therapy and different kinds of therapy that will benefit them immediately. There is an untapped opportunity to help patients today that is part of unfunded care.

Second, it's going to create a market for innovation. The capture of data on patients across the country, including their outcomes, will create an opportunity for innovation across the country and create more partnership in intersection with industry, and create more industry around it.

In Toronto we see huge investments in artificial intelligence and in data science. What this community is looking for is good data. In the health care system in Canada the kinds of data that we can create provide an enormous opportunity for this other part of the industry that the entire world is investing in.

The third thing is that the creation of this, at the end of the five years, is going to establish a new network, a new system in Canada for the coordination of cancer centres. It will be a legacy through which all cancer centres across the country will have an opportunity to tap into and benefit from the sharing and the data, and we will set up a system whereby we can continue to learn from our patients, going forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you.

We will have two one-minute statements from the audience.

If you witnesses here want to wait for those two or three minutes, I expect some members may want to chat with you for a few minutes on the side, if you can hold on.

We'll start with Anna Hammond, please, on the floor mike.

Go ahead, please.

[Anna Vanessa Hammond, As an Individual]

Honourable members, I am Anna Vanessa Hammond, a member of the ONE Campaign, and I acknowledge with respect the native Lekwungen-speaking people on whose territorial lands we are meeting today.

I have lived in 12 countries and worked, primarily on development initiatives, in 65. When I had the privilege of moving to Canada, I had the impression that respectful partnerships with others were important in my chosen land. That impression remained for many years, and it was discussed and assumed that our ODA, official development assistance, would reach 0.7% of our budget.

At the same time I was appalled by some of the gender discrimination I experienced and heard about from other women. I was not only surprised but equally appalled when I saw the same thing in our ODA planning.

It's time now, 50 years later—yes, 50 years later—to stop procrastinating and get to that 0.7% as a minimum. These funds are needed to ensure that all girls have equal access to the range of formal education available to their brothers and male cousins.

It's equally important that they be trained as leaders in community development and disaster prevention and response. An ill or an uneducated girl is a personal tragedy, an ethical outrage, an ignored potential environmental expert, and an irresponsibly and cruelly wasted resource.

I am here today to repeat the message of many organizations when I ask that the Government of Canada commit to increasing Canada's spending on global development to equal that of the most ethical of the other OECD countries and to follow the urging of World Vision, Engineers Without Borders and many others.

I ask that in budget 2019 the Government of Canada commit, at a minimum, to increasing Canada's spending on global development over 10 years by a minimum of 15% annual increases to the international assistance envelope, starting next year. Getting to 0.7% by 2030 should be our worst-case aim. Let's commit to this but work to do much better.

One other thing I'd like to add is that in the past there were many opportunities for small projects. Women do great work with very small amounts of money. Girls can do the same. The tendency we've seen towards large projects that overrun their budgets has not been helpful in terms of development.

My thanks to the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you, Vanessa.

Mavis DeGirolamo is next.

Go ahead.

[Mavis DeGirolamo, As an Individual]

Thank you, Chair and honourable members.

I also wish to acknowledge the ancestral traditional and unceded indigenous territory of the Lekwungen peoples upon whose land we are meeting today.

My name is Mavis DeGirolamo, and I am representing the ONE campaign in Victoria also as Vanessa was before me.

I am here on behalf of the two-thirds of Canadians who believe it is our responsibility to assist others around the world. As you know, Canada invests only 0.26% of its gross national income to official development assistance, which puts us far behind our closest friends and allies in the G7 and the OECD.

Support for the Global Fund and the Global Partnership for Education and an increase in budget 2018 were incredibly important first steps, but we are still not doing our fair share. We must do more.

You have recently heard from Vanessa and other ONE members, Engineers Without Borders, World Vision and others, and I am here today to support them and repeat the message. I ask that in budget 2019 the Government of Canada commit to increasing Canada's spending on global development over 10 years through predictable 15% annual increases to the international assistance envelope starting in the fiscal year of 2019.

Let us continue and make an even greater effort to be proud of Canada's role on the world stage.

I thank you for your kind attention and for allowing me to address you today.

Thank you, Chair and honourable members.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much.

That will conclude our pre-budget consultations in Victoria.

Thank you to all the witnesses who were here as well and for your presentations sent in previously.

With that, we are adjourned until we hit Edmonton.