Evidence of meeting #48 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was companies.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Mr. Clayton, can you talk about the kinds of investments that the federal government is making? Have you seen something similar to this before? What does this do to really up the game, if I can say that, in delivering emergency assistance and helping in this unprecedented situation?
12:50 p.m.
Director of Programs and Projects, Samaritan's Purse Canada
I can't speak specifically to what the Government of Canada is doing.
I can speak specifically to this immigration program that has been established, and I can only commend those who came up with this plan to be able to vet Ukrainians who would be eligible to come over here. It has been a relatively easy process that we have witnessed first-hand with the great work of the CBSA authorities in terms of making that possible.
I don't know about the specifics of resources. I just observe things in the news. As a country, I think we're making a significant contribution to the Ukrainian people.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you MP Shanahan—and of course for recognizing Vyshyvanka Day— and the members for their great questions.
I'm looking at the time right now. We have about 8 or 9 minutes left, so about two minutes per party as we usually do, until we conclude our meeting today.
We'll start with the Conservatives for two minutes.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to go back to the the Council of Canadian Innovators. You said that there are technology companies here in Canada that are waiting for a decision on Huawei, because they could offer other services. I'm very concerned that we have so many business that for equity and financing reasons are moving from Canada down to the United States. Do you feel that if we don't answer basic questions on what is allowed and what isn't, Canadian companies may seek to go to places where they have more regulatory certainty and they can raise the necessary capital to participate?
12:50 p.m.
Vice-President, Strategy and Advocacy, Council of Canadian Innovators
To be absolutely honest with you, we haven't seen a huge departure of Canadian companies from Canada at this point in time. There's always the threat, and some companies have either folded or been acquired by U.S. firms. Simply due to the fact that we have a huge talent supply here in Canada and that we are one of the most educated countries in the world and are producing Ph.D.s and highly educated STEM talent from universities across the country, I think sometimes that notion that Canadian companies are ready to pack up and leave Canada tomorrow is a lot more challenging than it actually appears to be. Nonetheless, I do certainly think there are provisions that we've identified across the board today that will have an impact on a decision whether or not a Canadian company would like to expand in Canada or maybe open up an office in the United States. I think that's sort of the distinction there.
12:50 p.m.
Director, Federal Affairs, Council of Canadian Innovators
If I could just add to that—
12:50 p.m.
Director, Federal Affairs, Council of Canadian Innovators
—just generally speaking, I think there's a lot more that can be done in terms of procurement for Canadian companies that have the right solutions. We see this a lot in the cyber sector where, in some cases, they have more luck with the American government than in Canada. So the more we can utilize Canadian innovation for our needs, the better.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, and thank you, MP Albas.
Next is MP MacDonald, for the Liberals, for the final questions.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you, Chair.
I want to go back to Mr. Ste-Marie's question relating to some companies or some persons not being available to collect CEWS. I know the federal government put in place relatively quickly the IAP of about $250 million. Do you know how many companies or persons actually took advantage of that $250 million during COVID?
12:50 p.m.
Vice-President, Strategy and Advocacy, Council of Canadian Innovators
That's a really good question. I don't know specifically the data and I can come back to you on that, but as I mentioned before, I would render a guess that probably about 80% to 90% of our companies had some interaction with the wage subsidy for sure, in its second iteration.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Heath MacDonald Liberal Malpeque, PE
Thank you.
We talked about labour and about seed companies and start-ups, and we have likely one of the best incubators in the world, or it was ranked number one in the world, at the corner of Yonge and Dundas, the DMZ, which I had a lot of interaction with in a previous life. How closely do you work with those types of post-secondary organizations or institutions, because they have a phenomenal track record of building new companies here right in Canada and growing this industry tenfold?
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Strategy and Advocacy, Council of Canadian Innovators
Our MO is all about “should rise together in Canada”, so we work closely with several accelerators, incubators and different programs. Recently there's a new upscaling initiative that was just out for RFI last week and closed, and there are a number of organizations such as CCI that are helping to try to think about what their rescaling and upscaling initiatives look like for tomorrow. We try our best really to expand our wings, all with the goal of helping domestic Canadian companies grow.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, MP MacDonald.
Moving to the Bloc for our final questions, we have MP Ste-Marie for two minutes.
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My questions are for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
First of all, I want to welcome you, Mr. Stimpson. Your testimony was very moving, and it helps us imagine how difficult it is to live with type 1 diabetes. It is our sincere wish that research will make it possible to live better with diabetes and even eliminate it completely.
In the meantime, I think that the proposal made by our colleague Mr. Stewart makes a lot of sense. We will certainly have to look at this issue, and I will certainly support it.
My question is for Mr. Prowten, and I would like to ask him to give us an idea of where the research is at. How does research in Canada compare to other countries? How could the federal government better support juvenile diabetes research?
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, JDRF Canada
First of all, thank you for the question and for supporting the amendment to make it easier for people to get the disability tax credit. That's fantastic.
I would say that since Banting and Best discovered insulin, Canada has hit above our weight in diabetes research. We're leaders in stem cell work that turns stem cells into insulin-producing cells.
I listened to some colleagues like Dana and Nicholas about innovative companies. This is a sector that we would like to expand in and grow in Canada as well. We think it's a really significant opportunity for us. I think the government could continue to invest in, I would say, basic research at universities and hospitals and all the way through to commercialization because, ultimately, we want to get new therapies to patients.
It is about supporting the spectrum of research in Canada.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, MP Ste-Marie.
Now we go to the NDP for our final questions this session.
MP Blaikie.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you.
I would like to circle back to Mr. Clayton. Could you give an example from your own experience with international organizations how the current rules impede good program delivery?
12:55 p.m.
Director of Programs and Projects, Samaritan's Purse Canada
I just think most recently of our Ukraine response. In the initial days of our combined response, as an international organization we struggled to identify a specific aspect of our Samaritan's Purse work that is only one work in Ukraine and to identify our own activities. We struggled to come up with a legal agreement and arrangement with our international headquarters to take on all of the operations of our Moldova office for a period of time. Instead of really being able to contribute to the full aspects of what it was that we were doing as an organization, we had to hive off a specific part of it and create a legal agreement that would make those our own activities.
Organizations all across Canada are carrying out these legal agreements, and some have referred to them as “legal fictions” that need to be created because of their activities.