Evidence of meeting #22 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 measurement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
This is a question that you may wish to ask Minister Goodyear and his deputy minister, Mr. Archibald.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
So for you, on the bureaucratic side--which I am fully supportive of--what does it do for planning? What would be best for you guys if we were to do it?
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
Again, these are matters that should be addressed with Mr. Goodyear.
For IRAP, the more lead time you have, if you're developing a program, the better it is. But this is a matter that honestly you may wish to discuss at some point with the NRC here, and FedDev, because they're the two players who have the money and who are receiving money.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
While I still have time, I have another question. It's about the money that's going to the technology cluster initiative. I'd like to know how much money is already spent. Or is this brand new money? I think it's new money, but is there already an investment in the cluster? How long have we been doing it? And what do we expect out of this new cash that we're giving them?
Chief Financial Officer, Comptrollership and Administration Sector, Department of Industry Canada
It's $135 million over two years. You see half of it in these particular supplementary estimates. It's for money that sunsetted last year, so it's to reinstate money that ended from last year.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
So just to get this clear, there was a two-year program that sunsetted...?
Chief Financial Officer, Comptrollership and Administration Sector, Department of Industry Canada
No. I don't know how many... I'd have to look into the terms of reference.
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
There were a number of clusters established over the last 10 or 15 years at the NRC. The government extended a number of them so that they would all come to a sunset phase at the same year--and that was last year--in order to be able to take stock of all of the clusters across the country.
The government has mandated a group to look at the effectiveness of clusters--what they are doing and how effective they are at knowledge application and so forth--and has given the clusters two years of additional money in order to permit this assessment to come through. But they have been in existence for 10 or 15 years across the country, some in P.E.I., some in Jonquière...
Conservative
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
Yes. I would suggest that by the end of the year one will have come to a determination.
The government also appointed a new president for the NRC who started in mid-April, so he's taking stock of these and seeing how well they're working with the various institutes, because many of those clusters are linked to the 18 major institutes that the NRC runs across the country.
Conservative
NDP
Claude Gravelle NDP Nickel Belt, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm just starting to try to understand this bill. Can you tell me who discovered the problem with the measurements?
NDP
Claude Gravelle NDP Nickel Belt, ON
That's in the next hour? Okay. I'm early, then.
Measurement Canada is currently responsible for these measurements, correct? So now we're going to appoint contractors to do it or find private companies to do this...?
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
I believe the bill is before the committee and that some hearings were held earlier this week.
Moving right along, this is a special agency operating within Industry Canada. First, we'll wait until the bill is adopted. In order to broaden the coverage and enhance our capacity, we intend to enter into a contractual relationship with a number of individuals who will do the evaluations. We also plan to verify operations in a number of other cases.
Once the bill is adopted, we expect to have more capacity to monitor gas pumps. As I said, we will be debating this matter in thirty minutes.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
Monsieur Gravelle, we also have the second hour to ask questions about this. Since it is within the department, you can ask the deputy minister about Measurement Canada, but they really came prepared today to talk about supplementary estimates (A).
NDP
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
We starting working on this bill two years ago. We carried out an evaluation blitz in the summer of 2008. Based on our findings, we concluded that it would be to our advantage to increase the number of verifications and to increase the fines when infractions are noted. We consulted with people working in this area.
My associates will be here at 10 o'clock and they will be able to tell you who they consulted with exactly.
NDP
Claude Gravelle NDP Nickel Belt, ON
I have a question for you, Mr. Chair. Is it in the first hour or the second hour that we can talk about the cuts to ACOA?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
To ACOA? You can ask the deputy minister about that right now. In fact, it's the first vote, so you can ask him about it. As I said before, though, while the votes fall under Industry Canada, it is a stand-alone agency, unlike FedNor, and he may not have the exact answers. The president of ACOA--I believe it's a woman--would be able to answer.
As I said before to other members, the next time we review either the main estimates or the supplementary estimates, if you wish to ask specific questions of specific agencies, let me know and I will ensure that those witnesses are invited.
This meeting has been called because Mr. Wallace has been pestering me--in a good way--to review the supplementary estimates each and every time. I commend him for that diligence. To that end, he was only interested in seeing the deputy minister, the chief financial officer, and the assistant deputy minister, so those were the witnesses I invited. But if other members wish to hear from other witnesses, you just have to let me know and let the clerk know and we will invite them.
So you can go ahead and ask about ACOA, but be forewarned that the deputy minister may not have the exact answers, as it's a very large department with a number of agencies.
NDP
NDP
Claude Gravelle NDP Nickel Belt, ON
I'm going to ask about the 5% cuts to ACOA. ACOA is an economic development agency that promotes jobs and development in Atlantic Canada. Why would the government cut this agency by 5% at a time when jobs are needed, when there's an economic downturn in Canada, and when unemployment is especially high in Atlantic Canada?
Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
In order to be logical with myself, I will take note of the question you've raised, because I would give you the same answer that I gave to Monsieur Bouchard in regard to my accountability versus the accountability of the president of ACOA and her minister, Mr. Ashfield, because we in Industry Canada—and I will definitely write the Treasury Board on this--to have more clarity between our accountability, which is fairly wide, and those agencies over which, apart from FedNor, we have no direct responsibility, accountability, and so forth.
But we will take note. I will pass it on in the same way that I will pass on the comments that Monsieur Bouchard made about
the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec. I will do likewise for Ms. Collettte of ACOA.