Government Operations Committee on June 5th, 2020

[Mitch Davies]

I thank the member for the question. I won't provide specifics on companies with which we're having confidential commercial conversations at this point. There will be information in due course that would come forward as decisions are taken.

I would say the question is who might be interested in establishing their business in Canada to meet the broader needs of the economy. We know of a number of companies that may well be of interest, and we're glad to have that strong interest from those companies. Certainly, we're happy to have those—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Let me interrupt, because I'm probably running out of time.

Let me ask you this: Has a North American-based company approached ISED and said it would build in Canada and have masks start to come out at the end of May or early June? Have you had discussions with such a company, without naming names?

[Mitch Davies]

At this point we're having further conversations with companies that are interested in establishing—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

In March and April, did ISED meet with such a company that offered to make the masks in Canada or North America and have them start being available by the end of May, early June?

[Mitch Davies]

Going back to my discussion of the early point in March when we were looking for opportunities to expand domestic production with a number of companies, obviously the deal with Medicom went forward because they were able to meet the time frames, were interested in establishing a domestic presence—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Did you set time frames until the end of the year for N95s? You talked earlier about the importance of delivery on time. I think this is the first we're hearing the N95s are not coming out until long after summer.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Unfortunately, we're out of time, but, Mr. Davies, if you could respond to Mr. McCauley's question as soon as possible in writing to our clerk, we would appreciate that early response.

We'll now go to a five-minute round.

Mr. Drouin, you have five minutes, please.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to follow a little of the line of questioning that all my previous colleagues have. I want to touch a little on the coordination among the provinces. I know some provinces have also announced some funding. As that relates to the SIF and helping companies retool in Canada, are efforts being made to coordinate with provinces to ensure we provide more value for our dollar in helping retool those companies?

[Mitch Davies]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

There's one industrial base. There are companies that we at the federal level and the provinces would have an interest in partnering with.

We appreciate the point and the need to coordinate, given that we're both drawing on the same industrial base and the same goal. We've established mechanisms in ISED to work with the provinces and territories on industrial response and have regular connectivity with them on a bilateral and multilateral basis. Also, Public Services and Procurement Canada has a federal-provincial-territorial committee where members discuss the same topics in terms of what they're doing on the procurement front and, of course, the Public Health Agency of Canada deals directly with the provinces and territories on their needs.

There's a wide range and very significant strong connectivity with the provinces and territories to get to the same goal and to coordinate well and to join our efforts where we certainly can.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

For those companies that did get access through the strategic innovation fund, I know that sometimes there are variables that are uncontrollable by the company. When you're planning whether or not to retool your industry or your production line, you think you may get access to the particular material you need. You have a timeline and then, whoops, suddenly certain contractors are not available to perform that work. I'm wondering if those conversations have been had with companies that have received SIF funding, specifically for COVID-19.

[Mitch Davies]

Specific SIF funding to scale production has not been a significant tool in the tool kit to this point to incent that production. The contracts that PSPC have put in the market have been very important. They have been at a volume level and of a long-term nature, which has allowed the company to have the wherewithal to invest the capital and make the arrangements with suppliers and so forth to bring forward that production.

The emphasis on providing an incentive directly, for example, to buy down capex with a strategic innovation fund, has not been as significant a tool in respect of the overall approach the government's taken, which has been more driven by the procurement decisions and contracts that have been let to date.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Based on that comment, is there any reason why SIF has not been approached? Are you signalling to the industry that, other than going through the regular channel of SIF applications that sometimes can take a few months, we understand the urgency that this must happen. Is that one of the potential barriers as to why companies didn't necessarily need to use SIF funding to retool their companies or—

[Mitch Davies]

Mr. Chair, I would say it's more a question of the tool that's required to get the job done rather than a question of time frames or whether approaching our department through the strategic innovation fund is the longer-term negotiation or more complicated. I think the strategic innovation fund in the days ahead is the key tool to unlock the R and D potential, particularly to support vaccine and therapeutic development in the country.

It's not a matter at this point where you're doing a contract; you're investing in the intellectual property development, the research and development. For us that will be a priority. In fact, there will be many projects that will be brought forward as a consequence of that support for the program. They will be done on a very timely basis. In many cases, letting a contract is the quickest way to get to the answer.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to our last two-and-a-half-minute round of interventions.

Go ahead, Monsieur Barsalou-Duval.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just now, my colleague asked Mr. Davies whether this fine Industry Strategy Council, which the government established and which is looking at the recovery of industries and the assessment of the impact of the COVID-19, will be transparent in its work.

The Council will have to work on the impacts and issue recommendations. They will probably be contained in a report and in the minutes. Will it all be made public?

[Mitch Davies]

Thank you for the interest in the work of the council and the question of how it will proceed and how it will inform Canadians as to its advice.

I would indicate that, in the economic strategy tables process that had been run in the past, a very significant report was offered out of that process. It was very well received and had a lot of strong support from all sectors and stakeholders.

I'm going to, of course, defer to the chair and the membership in this case as to how they choose to inform their work. Of course it's a priority that they have a strong level of engagement—

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

I have another question for you, Mr. Davies.

With the NAFTA, the government promised to establish an oversight system for imports of steel and aluminum to ensure that there is no dumping by countries producing steel very cheaply and selling it below cost.

We have recently seen that the government intends to postpone the establishment of that oversight system because of COVID-19.

Are you not afraid that countries that have not slowed their production, like China, may decide to flood our market?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Give a brief answer, please.

[Mitch Davies]

On the question of dumping, obviously, the production global oversupply, in particular of steel and other products, is a very sensitive and important topic for Canada. We've worked collaboratively on international fronts to encourage these practices to discontinue, obviously to protect our industry and the competitiveness of our industry.

I wouldn't have specific information on the specific measures, but I think that Canada Border Services Agency could perhaps be consulted in terms of the system of managing what importation is coming in. It's a very important priority, and I wouldn't say it's delayed in any way.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to our final intervention in the first hour.

Mr. Green, you have two and a half minutes.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to put it briefly, and I hope to get a brief answer back.

On the question of data as it relates to contact-tracing applications, we heard about privacy concerns. I'm interested in the sovereignty of the data, i.e. who gets to keep the data, who gets access to the data and how it's used.

[Mark Schaan]

I think it really depends on the nature of the application, because in many of these applications, there's no data that's produced. In the Bluetooth handshakes that are potentially engaging between two telephones using an API, the sole thing that's generated is a synonymized or anonymized key that indicates the contact between the two, and all of the information lives on the phone.

To the question asked by the honourable member, I would say it very much depends on the specifics of the application, but obviously, concerns around data protection and privacy are foremost in the government's operations of anything in the exposure notification space.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I'll put that I think it's also incredibly important that, in this time of mass collection of data in a pandemic, we use it for the best evidence-based policies on a move-forward basis.

I'm going to pick up on Mr. Aboultaif's question about sole source as it relates to procurement.

What is being done, if anything, to track disaggregated data as it relates to the gender-based analysis plus of procurement in order to provide equity, diversity and inclusion, particularly for ethnic, racial and indigenous communities?

[Mitch Davies]

The question of diversity, the practices of encouraging diversity and specifics of the procurement the government undertakes would be best addressed to Public Services and Procurement Canada, given that it has the overall responsibility for procurement for the federal government. I appreciate the question, though.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

As to the uptake of your programs and funding, is it a consideration that you have? Is it in the mandate letter to the minister?