Evidence of meeting #96 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was project.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:15 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
The headquarters of the organization has not been decided on yet.
Obviously, one of the key roles of the hub will be to work with provinces and municipalities. Presumably it could envision having antennae, but these decisions have not been made.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
How would this Invest in Canada hub work with, for instance, indigenous peoples?
11:15 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
That's a very interesting question. There is interest in indigenous communities sometimes to attract foreign investments through, for instance, the regional development agencies. There are certainly connections that can be made there. It is part of its mandate to attract investment everywhere in Canada, so it will work with the stakeholders who have an interest in attracting investors and promote their locality to foreign investors.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
You mentioned that it's for promotional reasons. I wonder if you could give an indication of how you're going to go about promoting. Is it going to be people going on trips overseas, doing ad campaigns oversees or trade missions? How do you believe it will work?
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
The details of how it's going to do that are not defined yet, but if you look at the mandate itself and the role of the agency, it will actually develop an integrated strategy, working with provinces, municipalities, and communities to attract foreign investment. That strategy will include marketing campaigns, promotional campaigns. It could be advertising campaigns. That has not been decided, but obviously there would be a démarche, working closely with our trade commissioners who are located in the field already to promote Canada as a place to invest.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
The Minister of International Trade has received a mandate to create the Invest in Canada hub. Officially, the responsible minister will be appointed by order in council once the act is enabled.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
How would the director and the board of directors be chosen?
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
It would be through an order in council, and basically following the regular process of OIC appointees.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
How will your chief executive officer be chosen?
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
It would be the same thing, through OIC and through the appointee process, led by the Privy Council Office.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
Will all the general conflict of interest guidelines apply to the chief executive officer?
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Yes, absolutely, they will apply to the CEO, as a reporting officer.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
Will the Invest in Canada hub have the ability to make loans or give out funds?
May 30th, 2017 / 11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
No.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
Will it be able to invest in corporations that come here?
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
No.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
That's right, facilitation and promotion.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
We're talking a lot about wine, beer, and spirits. When I was in Taiwan, a country of around 23 million people, there was very little Canadian beer.
Would it be able to take a couple of representatives of Canadian microbreweries and wineries to Taiwan to promote greater trade in that area?
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
The role of the agency is to attract investments, not so much to promote trade abroad. We already have the trade commissioner service doing that.
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
For instance, it could take on missions, to bring a municipality, a community, a province, or a series of them to a market to promote their jurisdiction to foreign investors, to attract them to come to Canada to establish themselves, create jobs, develop a laboratory, a manufacturing facility, or a service company. The purpose is to attract foreign investors here to create jobs in Canada directly.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB
Are the employees of the Canada investment hub going to be civil servants?
11:20 a.m.
Director General, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Yes, they will be part of the public service.