Evidence of meeting #61 for Health in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was companies.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:40 p.m.
Professor and Canada Research Chair, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario
There's certainly a role. I firmly believe in partnerships. We do a lot of contract research where there's no IP being exchanged, no patents, or if we do these things, we're signing a non-disclosure agreement. We work with companies all over the world, Boston Scientific, Philips, Siemens AG, companies in Waterloo, Ontario.
The problem in Canada is we're geographically large. Holland is very small, and there a number of major centres of learning and innovation there. There's Nijmegen and Utrecht. They're all just a half hour from each other by train. Of course, we can't quite do that, nor do we have a Philips in this country. Philips is over 100 years old, a major multi-national. What is good for Holland is good for Philips, and what is good for Philips is good for Holland. We don't have drivers like that in this country. Perhaps in the natural resource sector we do, but not in health care. But we have health as a unifying factor for all of us, and we know the market is not just Canadian. We know that things we develop can be sold anywhere.
If you could figure out a way to bring in a huge company like a Philips, even if you can't develop it here to begin with, that would change the landscape in Canada.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Are you suggesting that we invite firms from another country? Is it a key thing that we should be looking for as part of our economy and part of our social fabric? Should we be constantly bringing stuff up from the United States? Should we be pitching that?
12:40 p.m.
Professor and Canada Research Chair, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario
We bring a lot of foreign investment into oil sands, telecommunications, you name it. Why can't we do that in the medical device industry or the drug industry? We had a lot of very successful branch plants like Merck-Frosst in Montreal. They're all gone. For some reason, and I don't know all the reasons, they left. It wasn't because of a lack of smart people in this country.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
I'm so sorry. This conversation is very interesting, but our time is up now.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Yes, I'm sorry. That's five minutes. I gave you a little more than that, actually, because you're so charming, Mr. Eyking.
Having said that, you are all charming. You've done a wonderful presentation today, and we appreciate it.
We will go in camera for business. After we say goodbye to all you very learned people, I'm going to ask you to please make sure that everybody leaves the room except the committee members and their staff.
Thank you so much.
[Proceedings continue in camera]