Evidence of meeting #16 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vote.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
So your base budget would increase if the supplementaries project is a base budget item that will last more than that particular current year. Is that correct?
Director General, Resource Planning and Investments Branch, Department of Industry
That's correct.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
This is the first year that I've seen in the front of the book the addition of the supplementaries in a nice chart. It really was more difficult for me to find....
Speaking of structure, which is another one of the questions I have, within this industry budget, I find FedDev for southern Ontario, but I have to go elsewhere in the book to find Western Diversification and the Atlantic Canada and Quebec funds. Why is FedDev included here and not on its own, or are we looking at moving those things back? Why is that set up differently? Why do we have to search for that?
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
This year was a bit of a transition year. The Department of Industry had been given a mandate to help start, launch, or establish FedDev because we were carrying out certain activities such as Infrastructure Canada activities. The government asked us to put it together, launch it, and create the infrastructure, because there was no staff. There was nobody there. That was one of the reasons why it was captured within our--
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Would you put that as a separate item next year or do we know?
Director General, Resource Planning and Investments Branch, Department of Industry
Well, it's separate within the industry portfolio.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
I know it's separate within here, but Western Diversification has its own part of the book. It's not in the industry section. Can I expect FedDev to be separate? It's federally administered. Are we going to continue to keep it within the industry portfolio?
Director General, Resource Planning and Investments Branch, Department of Industry
My understanding is that it remains under the industry portfolio, under Minister--
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay. I appreciate that.
Based on the budget, on Bill C-9, I'm not a big fan, to be frank, of departments being able to come back three times in a year. I've said that for four years in a row now and I'll continue to be that way.
Based on Bill C-9, are we expecting big supplementaries in A and B--and I hope not in C--from the industry department?
Director General, Resource Planning and Investments Branch, Department of Industry
First of all, in the budget implementation act, two of the programs, Genome Canada and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, were directly in the budget implementation act and will not be coming back in the supplementary estimates.
What we will see in supplementary estimates (A) are the two initiatives that have already been approved by Treasury Board ministers. Those are for the National Research Council, for the cluster initiatives and for TRIUMF, for a total of $113 million for those two. So that would be supplementary estimates (A).
There are nine other initiatives for which we're currently in the process of finalizing the program details. We'll put those out for consideration to Treasury Board ministers. Once they are approved, they will go into supplementary estimates (B), most likely.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
For my final question in this round, if you don't mind, I'm going to go to Statistics Canada, for example. They're getting a fairly significant increase. As a percentage, it's 20%. Then, in 2011, they go up again, but drop significantly in 2012. Where I always try to find things that are a little bit odd is where the FTEs don't match up or change considerably.
Can you explain what's happening at Statistics Canada? Are we going to be prepared? Because I think we need to make cost-cutting--and I make no apologies for it--in areas where we can. Can you tell me what's happening at Statistics Canada?
Conservative
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
It relates to the 2011 census. There's a ramp-up and then a ramp-down.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
A ramp-down--okay.
I really appreciate that. That's good.
Thank you very much.
Conservative
Bloc
Serge Cardin Bloc Sherbrooke, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.
Two issues are very close to my heart: broadband and climate research. The minister, and even the department, are saying that it is important that everyone be connected, that socio-economic development depends on it. For my part, I would even go so far as to say that insufficient funding for getting remote regions online could even be a strong contributing factor to the exodus of young people. A lack of such funding could even discourage a good many people from settling in outlying regions. Indeed, as you know, people are more and more able to work from home thanks to quality well-performing tools.
What do you estimate it would cost to connect everyone ?
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
As public servants, we are here to explain, describe and comment on the estimates the government has presented to you. It is difficult for us to speculate with regard to the overall envelope. Furthermore, it depends in part on what you mean by connect. There are various levels of quality in the services that people can obtain.
Bloc
Serge Cardin Bloc Sherbrooke, QC
I am talking in particular about high speed. No one any longer wants to have a pedal system for the Internet.
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
The cost depends in part on the quality of the services chosen. The minister stated earlier that the investment of approximately $200 million would extend the service to a good many Canadians. We did not do any definitive calculations in view of determining how much it would cost to connect up to the very last Canadian in some isolated part of the country. However, we are of the view that the investments to come will significantly contribute to filling the gap between those who presently have access to those services and those who do not.
Bloc
Serge Cardin Bloc Sherbrooke, QC
I imagine that you are used — in the good sense of the term — by the department as advisors. There therefore must be assessments. The minister said that this brought about a lot of interest. We are talking about 570 requests for a value of approximately $1 billion. That is the first stage. I imagine that a large portion of these requests could be covered by this $1 billion investment. Today, we have $225 million. We are talking of a three-year waiting period. I do not know if you have advised the minister to act more quickly. I hope such is the case. The need is immense. It is constantly being repeated that economic development relies, among other things, on the development of the digital economy. The need to act is therefore more than urgent.
I believe I heard the minister talk about private sector investment in this regard. What amount does the department hope these investments will reach?
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
I would first like to make a clarification with regard to the billion dollars the minister talked about. We put out a call for tenders to the private sector and various companies submitted proposals to us. However, in several cases, these proposals targeted the same territory. This does not necessarily represent the entirety of the country's needs.
Bloc
Serge Cardin Bloc Sherbrooke, QC
Mr. Chairman, would it be possible to ask the department to hold an information session regarding the present situation and the factors it relied upon to identify the needs?
Bloc
