Industry Committee on March 15th, 2012

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Fine, thank you.

Do I have any time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

You have about seven more seconds.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Since you were very kind earlier, I will turn them over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Your time has now pretty well expired. Thank you very much, Monsieur Côté.

Is there any more rebuttal from the government side? No.

Does anybody have any other questions?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Sure, Mr. Chairman. Are you looking for more questions?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

I think we've got about three or four more minutes, so I think that would be acceptable. I don't see anybody jumping up and down.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I'm once again grateful for the opportunity.

Mr. Dicerni, can you tell us about the change in the number of full-time equivalent employees in the industry portfolio between 2011-12 and 2012-13? If you don't have those details with you, perhaps you could provide them to the committee.

I'm speaking of the changes from this current fiscal year to the next fiscal year. The main estimates, of course, are for 2012-13.

[Richard Dicerni]

Sure, we can work through the portfolio and get back to you. There are always a lot of puts and takes, depending on things coming out of the economic action plan and activities that were sunsetted and so forth, but that's factual information that we can compare.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you.

Who will finance the build of the public band for emergency services in Canada? I'm talking about the spectrum that's set aside for emergency services, firefighters, and so forth. It's going to require....

If we don't know who it's going to be, how do we know it's going to happen?

[Helen McDonald]

Public Safety Canada might have a say in that—

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

You're hoping. You don't know if the Government of Canada is going to fund that at all. You're making the spectrum available and hoping that somebody's going to fund it so that firefighters and so forth can use it, but at this point it's an open question. That's what you're telling me, I think.

[Richard Dicerni]

We're the allocators, not the builders.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Maybe that will be addressed in the budget.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Regan, that's two questions, and I know Madame LeBlanc has some, so just to be fair...

[Hélène LeBlanc, NDP, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you again, Mr. Dicerni.

I want to go back to the research institutes, the way they are funded, and so on.

As you know, some sectors of the economy generate less interest than others, but the government is required to continue research and work in those areas, even though they are not necessarily considered moneymakers by industry. So I would like to draw your attention to environmental technologies and ask you why, on page 215 of the English version, there is a cut of about $6.6 million in the amount identified for energy and environmental technologies.

[Richard Dicerni]

To be perfectly honest, I have to tell you that I don't know. That comes under the National Research Council Canada. So I will ask them how they arrived at that reduction…

[Hélène LeBlanc, NDP, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

I just wanted to point it out. I understand that we want to be able to provide services to industries, but the role of government is also to do research in areas…

[Richard Dicerni]

…that do not necessarily make money.

[Hélène LeBlanc, NDP, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Exactly.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much, Mr. Dicerni, Ms. Gillis, and Mr. Kennedy, and thank you, Ms. McDonald, for coming on the scene and providing some good information for us as well.

That wraps up our twenty-second meeting. When we return, we'll be going back to our regular time of 8:45 a.m. and we'll be meeting back here. You'll get a notice of meeting, but we'll be continuing in camera, wrapping up our study on electronic payments and e-commerce.

Thank you very much. Have a very diligent constituency week.

The meeting is adjourned.