Finance Committee on Sept. 20th, 2016

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for giving me the floor.

Madam Deputy Minister, Mr. Lemieux and Mr. Mongeau, thank you for being here today.

You clearly have a very good understanding of Quebec. You spoke about the regions, an SME economy and the CFDCs. I'd like to discuss two issues on this matter.

You mentioned your youth entrepreneurship strategy. As we know, keeping young people in our regions is one of the main issues. I'm from Mauricie, a region experiencing a complete industrial redevelopment. It is making a lot of progress, but through entrepreneurship and the digital sector.

The second point I'd like to mention ties in with what many of my colleagues have addressed: connectivity. The federal budget sets aside $500 million specifically for improving connectivity in our regions. Connectivity is vital so that the people in our regions can take part in our innovation program, which will help to increase productivity.

Youth entrepreneurship and connectivity are two important aspects of your mandate that I'd like to hear you speak about.

[Manon Brassard]

I'll start with the second point, communities. We often think about communities that are in a very difficult situation and require frequent intervention and specific, targeted programs. However, it's important to keep in mind the importance of communities and what is being done in the context of more recreational and sports infrastructure programs.

We were speaking earlier about the difficulty in attracting people to work in our regions. People want to have regions—

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Please allow me to make a clarification.

I was talking about connectivity, not communities. I'm sorry if I mispronounced the world. I was talking about high-speed Internet and cell phones. As we know, regions that are not connected may have difficulty being a part of the 21st century economy.

[Manon Brassard]

My colleague from Innovation, Science and Economic Development reflects more on these issues from a national perspective. It is clear from that perspective that companies benefit from using a great variety of technologies to improve their products, processes and approaches. So, it is very important for companies to be as connected as possible and that they master the technologies, which is part of our innovation assistance programs. We strongly encourage projects like this.

We often find young entrepreneurs among young university graduates who have ideas and are part of incubators. We try to help them stay in our regions. We are making a significant effort in this area.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Can I ask another question, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Yes.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

My colleague, Mr. Ouellette, spoke about our indigenous communities. I represent several, which are in northern Mauricie. I think it would be worthwhile to assign development agents to the indigenous communities. It is important to consider the context they are in, particularly since they are often far from large urban centres.

There's also a cultural element that causes us to question how to develop these aspects. Within regional groups, people could act as development agents and see to determining what can be done. In my region, some of the projects that CED has been involved in have been enormously successful. I'm thinking of the Obedjiwan sawmill, in particular. There are examples of success in some communities, and perhaps that's a path you can follow.

[Manon Brassard]

We aren't very far from that. First, our office in Abitibi and the north focuses specifically on northern needs. And where there are indigenous communities, the business offices share their areas. When there is an indigenous community, someone is assigned there part time, depending on the size of the community and the number of projects created. Obviously, we pay particular attention to it, and this will increasingly be the case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Aboultaif.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you.

I need to ask a couple of questions quickly. You mentioned that there are three types of regional economies in Quebec—resource, manufacturing, and urban. Do you have a breakdown of the percentage of GDP for all three?

[Manon Brassard]

Sorry, I didn't catch that.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Do you have a breakdown of the percentage of GDP of the economy for each sector, the three sectors that you mentioned?

[Manon Brassard]

I don't think we have one readily available.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

If you don't, we can move on.

You talked about productivity, and about a decrease in productivity and higher purchase prices for leading-edge technologies or equipment due to the lower Canadian dollar. The Canadian dollar at some point was at par with the U.S. Where was the government, or what were the efforts at that time to upgrade the equipment to a level that could help increase productivity? Were there any efforts at that time?

[Manon Brassard]

I believe there were efforts at that time to get everything we needed, that the enterprises need. But this is an ongoing need. You don't modernize once and for all. Enterprises need to keep modernizing their enterprises. They need to keep having the latest technology if they want to prosper and continue to innovate.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Well, without productivity, you have no competitive edge overall. This is very vital for industry, especially for a place like Quebec.

To go back to the oil sector and the impact on the overall Canadian economy, I guess Quebec, being a very industrialized economy, must have been impacted quite a bit by the effect of oil pricing down and by the slowdowns in Alberta. A pipeline would help boost economic growth and would also create job opportunities across the country. Would you fight for a pipeline as a booster to the economy of Quebec and the rest of the country?

[Manon Brassard]

Looking at it from a Quebec perspective.... You understand the context around this. The provinces and the premiers made comments on that industry and the pipeline. I will leave it there.

There are some comments about the number of jobs being created in Quebec in that, which is higher or lower depending on whom you talk to. These are not the kinds of projects we do as part of our mandate. I find that I am in a little difficulty—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

That's fine. You don't have to answer what could be a politically sensitive question. We are not asking you to answer that.

Go ahead.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

That was not the meaning. I am saying that I see that you have been impacted it quite a bit, and you already have problems with productivity, a decrease in productivity, which is very dangerous. We cannot cope with the rest of our economic counterparts, especially the United States and Europe.

There is a factor there. Would you encourage the government to have the pipeline going through, so your economy will become better as a result of that? Then you have a chance to work on other areas where the project is in place.

[Manon Brassard]

I'm—

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Okay. I have one final question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Go ahead, Mr. Aboultaif.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Back to the breakdown, do you have numbers for me on resource, manufacturing, and urban? Do you have those percentages ready?

[Manon Brassard]

I can easily have them for you. We can send them quickly.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Okay.