Evidence of meeting #34 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was saskatchewan.
A video is available from Parliament.
4 p.m.
President, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Let me add that we have only had two mandates so far. We see that there is a difference but we don't know what will happen in the third mandate. You can see that the numbers for the period after 2014-15 are more stable.
4 p.m.
NDP
Guy Caron NDP Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
That's a unique feature of your agency. In fact, I have not seen fluctuations like that in any other agency. The total budget that you have received since 2013-14 has decreased from $234 million to $104 million, then increased from $198 million to $234 million. The following amounts of $234 million, $220 million and $184 million show us that the budget is still decreasing. I'm assuming that your third mandate will start in 2018-19.
4 p.m.
President, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
It will begin in 2019-20.
4 p.m.
NDP
Guy Caron NDP Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Okay.
Is this system working for you? As I said before, agreements have been reached between the other agencies and the federal government.
It seems that your agency is the only one that works in five-year blocks, relatively independent from each other.
4 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Partnership and Performance Management, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Thank you.
Our agency was created in 2009 only. So it is a rather young organization. As I mentioned before, we are in the middle of the second five-year mandate. The other regional economic development agencies, that were created in 1987, as I recall, benefit from a rolling budget.
In our case, we have a budget of $920 million for a five-year mandate. Our agency works very closely with businesses to foster their growth, in partnership with all the stakeholders from incubators and accelerators. In support of innovation, we are also working closely with our federal and provincial partners to leverage and maximize the budget envelopes we have. Most of our programming focuses on innovation and on how to encourage partnerships, co-operation with post-secondary institutions and the private sector. There is a real focus on commercialization.
To answer your question, we have a five-year mandate and one budget. We are trying to leverage and maximize the results by working closely with our partners.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
Thank you to our witnesses for coming today.
I think a lot of the concern across the board is about the metrics: to see if there's an actual return on investment for your budget. Your total budget, and correct me if I'm wrong, is $920 million, and that's spread over the five-year mandate. How much of that was committed on year-over-year projects before January 1, 2016?
4:05 p.m.
President, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
We have that number somewhere. Yes, about 65% of our core funding was committed before then.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
What is the percentage of the budget in a breakdown by industry? How much is in manufacturing and auto manufacturing? At the same time, what is the percentage breakdown between large companies and the small and medium enterprises?
4:05 p.m.
President, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
With respect to the large and small, it's virtually all for small. There might be a handful of projects that we've done with larger companies. We've put together these consortia. We might have, say, an IBM or somebody that's part of the partnership, but in terms of direct support, it would be almost all for small and medium-sized enterprises.
In terms of the manufacturing, do you have that, Alain?
4:05 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Partnership and Performance Management, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
To complement the president in terms of your question, in terms of manufacturing, the president stated in her opening remarks that we have more than 200 projects. Given the importance of manufacturing in Ontario, obviously, it's a key sector in which we'll invest. There has been $462 million in investment since the inception of the agency, which in return is expected to leverage $1.76 billion.
To your question in terms of the various sectors, there are other sectors that we support as well. It could be agrifood and life sciences, depending on the various companies or the various consortia that might come to us. We work with them. What we're trying to do is work with the firms in order to support their ability to scale up and grow.
In the case of the consortia, we're trying to leverage the innovation assets, the ecosystem that southern Ontario has, and create those partnerships between the public and private sectors in order to create optimal growth.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
Of the $462 million invested, you're saying that the return on investment is $1.7 billion?
4:05 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Partnership and Performance Management, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
It's not the return. In return, it's the investments we are leveraging from the companies themselves, or from the various entities.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:05 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Partnership and Performance Management, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Exactly.
4:05 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Partnership and Performance Management, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Yes. All the programs we have ask for some leveraging.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
Do you guys have a number for every dollar you invest into a corporation and how much it adds to the economy or to the GDP?
4:05 p.m.
President, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
As I said in my opening remarks, since our inception we've invested I think $1.6 billion, and that has leveraged $2.7 billion of additional investment.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Raj Grewal Liberal Brampton East, ON
Can you give me an ideal project or a success story that's like your poster child for saying that FedDev Ontario in southern Ontario needs more money?
4:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Partnership and Performance Management, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Are you interested in firm-specific or maybe a consortia...?
4:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Policy, Partnership and Performance Management, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Earlier, I referred to some of the things we are trying to do in leveraging the innovation ecosystem that exists in the region and creating that type of collaboration in Ontario to make sure various key players and actors are working together.
There is a project called the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform. Some people refer to it as SOSCIP. The agency has funded this platform twice. It tries to pair academics and industry partners with advanced computing tools, software, and equipment, to fuel commercialization and innovation for those companies.
The partnership and the collaboration occur in different streams. It could be mining, advanced manufacturing, or cybersecurity. This provides the tools for the SMEs to work with researchers or post-graduate students. We have approximately 15 universities in southern Ontario that are partners as part of that, and each of them has expertise. They are able to work with specific companies that have specific needs and in return support the ability of these companies to bring their products or services to market much faster. First-mover advantage is critical.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I'm sorry, Raj. You're out of time.
Ms. Horsman, just so the numbers match, I think that in the original paper it is $1.6 billion committed and $2.4 billion leveraged.
4:10 p.m.
President, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
I'm sorry. Thank you for the correction.