Finance Committee on Sept. 21st, 2016

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

You spoke also about the labour shortage. You would like to bring in more people. You have a very young indigenous community, which is also good news. How are you planning to fill those gaps in the labour market?

[France Guimond]

I think we should continue to invest in projects like the ones we're doing to train people, and we should do that with industry. I always say that one of the great things we do is to make sure there is industry pull. For example, when StandardAero and Magellan came to us and said they had a shortage of skilled technicians and it was keeping them from competing on the world stage, we got together with the post-secondary institutions and the province. For example, we put together the Centre for Aerospace Technology & Training.

Innovation is important, absolutely. We have to keep innovating and investing in skills development projects, and we have to keep doing more of the things we're doing. Innovation is key.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Ron Liepert]

Thank you.

We'll move to Ms. Ashton.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Thank you so much for being here.

First, I want to acknowledge the important work done by Community Futures. They're very present in many of our communities in the north. I appreciate the good work they do.

I also want to acknowledge that Western Economic Diversification Canada in recent years has certainly sustained some of the deepest cuts out of all the regional development agencies. I hope that's something that will be addressed by the new government.

Ms. Guimond, in your presentation, you referred particularly to what my part of the country, my home, northern Manitoba, is going through. I do have a couple of questions on that.

Given that your work focuses on Manitoba, I'm wondering if perhaps you could share briefly how serious the situation is, given the recent announcements of the Port of Churchill closure, the Tolko closure, the insecurity of the 777 Mine in Flin Flon, the potential insecurity in the value-added jobs in the Thompson area, and also the withdrawal of the East Side Road Authority. Perhaps you could reflect on what that means for us as a province, as you see it.

[France Guimond]

I'll start with your first point regarding the critical situation in northern Manitoba at the moment.

Certainly the north has a lot of advantages, but it has a lot of challenges, as I mentioned in my opening remarks: isolation, unemployment, lack of alternative employment, and social issues. Through the years, WD has been doing significant work on the ground. I'll mention some of the examples, from The Pas to Churchill to Thompson, where we've helped, always in collaboration with partners.

For example, there's the environmental aerospace testing facility in Thompson, which has helped put aerospace on the map. We've done work in establishing the Northern Manitoba Sector Council so we can do projects, again, for skills development and in the mining industry. We also work with the University College of the North. All of those things are being done. Of course, I go back to our Community Futures Corporation and all the great work that the five communities are doing in the northern region to help address these issues.

I will speak to the point on Churchill. It is a critical time at the moment. Our department has been very active. My deputy minister has been up in Churchill. He has been chairing the weekly calls with the northern delegation, which is a consortium of industry leaders, mayors, and indigenous communities. They took the call to action, the first step, wanting to save the shipping season, but are now turning to what we can do immediately to help the community. Our immediate focus has been on the community, on what we can do for the people who have been unemployed, or are unemployed because of the situation, in a kind of a whole-of-government approach in the sense of supply of food and making sure they have—

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

I'm sorry to interrupt. I am familiar with this work. I want to pick up on that point, because I'm aware that time is pressing.

You mentioned “whole-of-government”. Many of us are aware that Western Economic Diversification is on the ground, connected in Churchill, and also in The Pas, with the recent announcement from Tolko. The question for many of us is, who else is on the ground? Do you see a greater role for the federal government, and for other departments as well, to be part of some of the solutions that we need? There are issues in terms of EI. There are certainly issues going forward in terms of potential first nations ownership, which would involve, obviously, INAC and other departments.

Given your role and WD's role in seeing how we can all partner, is there a greater role for the federal government, as well as other partners? Is there a greater role for the federal government to play in helping us to find solutions on the ground?

[France Guimond]

For the long-term solution, yes. In the immediate, I think that's what we do. We're on the ground. We do the coordination role of the federal department, so yes, we are in contact with INAC. We're in contact with Transport. As you say, it leads across a whole lot of departments.

There's no immediate solution to OmniTRAX and the port, so we're concentrating on the community for the time being. Then, long term, absolutely, it's a role of government. We have engaged and are really working together on finding a long-term solution, but with the community, because it's so key. They have a tremendous number of assets. They have Arctic research, they have tourism, they have—

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

But without sustainability.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I'm sorry, Niki, but we'll have to cut you off there.

We have time for about two more questions. We have 15 minutes before the vote.

We'll turn to Mr. Sorbara for four minutes.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome.

I have a quick question on the success in helping SMEs, in investing in SMEs in Manitoba and helping them commercialize some products or innovations that they've come up with, or some partnerships that you may have entered into. Can you just provide some colour on that front?

[France Guimond]

Excuse me?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Please provide some colour on that front, some commentary on helping SMEs in Manitoba, helping them commercialize innovations that they may have come to you with or that may require some capital for them to succeed.

[France Guimond]

The western innovation initiative has helped some small and medium-sized businesses in Manitoba to commercialize their products and access markets. The innovation ecosystem in Manitoba has its challenges, access to capital being a big one. We got that intel after the first call for proposals, so we really have stepped up and reached out to a lot of organizations in the province, and to the province itself, first of all to try to help SMEs become aware of the program and to do those information sessions and help them apply.

[James Meddings]

The WINN program is delivered across all four western provinces, as you know. We get a tremendous number of applications and proposals from British Columbia and Alberta, a smaller number from Saskatchewan, and the least from Manitoba. As my colleague was saying, we've been trying to find ways to get that message out and across that this program is available, but in terms of scale, it is still a very small program. We've only managed to support 51 projects under two intakes. It's about a $50-million spread across those 51 projects.

There's always a question of scale and impact. While we're responding in that program to what we believe is the necessary provision of patient capital for people who have a good idea to take from the workbench to the marketplace, and that's what we're trying to do, we are being inundated with good proposals from B.C. and Alberta, and we don't have enough coming from Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Again, on that program, of the 51 we've received, we can only really support one of eleven applications we receive. There's a high demand, a huge demand, for this. We just can't cover it with our present funding.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

That was one out of every eleven?

[James Meddings]

One out of every 11 so far in our first two intakes. It may come down. We've just completed our third intake and Minister Bains announced one of those successful projects yesterday in Vancouver. You'll see more of those announcements coming out in the next few days. I would believe that if all goes to plan that ratio might come down, but not significantly. It will still be one in nine or one in ten.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

You can have quick one, Mr. Sorbara.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

How robust has the uptake been on the Canada 150 community infrastructure program in terms of applicants?

[James Meddings]

Generally for the west or for Manitoba?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

For Manitoba specifically.

[France Guimond]

In Manitoba we received a number of applications. We're always oversubscribed in that. We had 363 applications in Manitoba alone. Again, as James mentioned, we are usually very oversubscribed.

The numbers are one thing when we talk quantity, but the quality is another thing. The story is that because of the amount of funding we have, we leave a lot of really good projects on the table, and that's the reality of what we live with.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thanks to both of you.

Mr. Liepert.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

I have one question. It follows up on what my colleague asked earlier. I think, if I got his question right, that you might have misunderstood what he was asking, so I want to try to ask it in a different way.

There is a common belief that the manufacturing industries of central Canada will significantly feel the impact of low commodity prices in the rest of the country. I ask the question, do you not see an impact to Manitoba's manufacturing base with the downturn in the commodities of the other western provinces? It's not a question of whether Manitoba is suffering from a downturn in commodity prices; it's a question of whether the manufacturing base of Manitoba has taken a hit because of low commodity prices and low purchasing power elsewhere in the country.

[France Guimond]

Yes, there will be a hit in manufacturing, absolutely. It will affect it.