Industry Committee on Nov. 29th, 2012

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

To $180 million—

[Robert Dunlop]

Yes, to $180 million. There's another element to what was announced in the budget, which is increasing their value-added service—the concierge service—and that's what's being ramped up. The full ask for that is not being made at this point.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

The full ask is not being made?

[Robert Dunlop]

That's right.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay.

Do we have the resources on the ground to be able to get the IRAP money to those companies that can use it?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

I would say yes. In fact, you might remember, Mike, that a few years ago we added $200 million to the IRAP program as a stimulus fund, and the IRAP people, through the NRC, were very, very good at successfully delivering that money and having a significant impact on the economy right across Canada. I have no doubts that they have the resources in place to handle that money.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

From your own agency supplementaries, on the $23 million that is for the community development fund—the community investment fund—just explain it to me. Is that half of...? Is it over two years? I'm assuming that it's been divvied up across the country. Is it done by per capita...? How is it determined how much you would get?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

If I'm not mistaken, I think the $23 million is actually a top-up. The community infrastructure investment fund is $24 million—

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

It's $24 million—sorry.

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Is that the one you're talking about?

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Yes.

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Yes. This is obviously over a two-year program. This first year is the $24 million. The entire allocation for Ontario is just over $49 million. It is in fact based on population across the country. It was a $150-million national program in the economic action plan 2012, but it was a two-year program. This is the ask for Ontario for the first year.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

You're also transferring money out to Shared Services. Is this the last time I'll see money transferred to Shared Services? Are they not going to be fully funded by now...?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Actually, this is an opportunity for us to increase efficiencies without affecting programs and the delivery of the programs.

I might want to refer to Bruce on this, but this is having audit functions and human resource functions....

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

There's another line for audit functions, Minister.

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Okay. So these programs are actually being delivered by a central basis, which actually is saving the agency money.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Right: I understand Shared Services. I just want to know are we done sharing the.... We're starting a new program, we're starting a new department, and departments are sending money to that department. Is this the last time I will see that happen? That's my question.

You don't have to answer that. They can. Thank you.

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

All right. I'll let Bruce answer that.

I do know that FedDev was already pretty lean in the beginning.

[Dr. Bruce Archibald, President, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario]

Thank you, Minister.

With the creation of Shared Services, they picked up the responsibility for looking after phones for the agencies, and e-mails, so the cost you're looking at here in the supplementary (B)s is basically a transfer to them for taking on that service and providing those services to the agency.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I understand. Are you done sending that money to them? That is my question.

[Dr. Bruce Archibald]

This will now become part of their ongoing budget going forward.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

It will be theirs so we won't see it in yours anymore.

Also, I understand the audit is being centralized so you don't have an audit function anymore within....

[Dr. Bruce Archibald]

That's correct.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay. That's great.

I may have one more question, but I want to ask about this before my time is up, because my time flies. In your plans and priorities document for this year, one of your programs is “Technological Innovation”. One of your performance indicators is to increase the number of employees in southern Ontario “that are considered highly skilled and qualified personnel”. Underneath that is the definition of highly skilled and qualified personnel, which is defined by Statistics Canada as “individuals with university degrees at the bachelors' level”.

Minister, is there any way we can change that definition to include those highly skilled individuals who have college? I think a lot of innovation and development can happen at the college level among and those with that skill set and knowledge. My own personal concern is that we spend a lot of money on university students and advanced technological stuff, but a lot of good quality work can be done at the college level. Would you like to comment on that at all?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Yes, I would, and thank you. That's a very good suggestion and I will take it under advisement. We'll look into that.

That said, just as a backup to it, our government over the years has been focusing more and more on colleges. In fact, you will remember that the knowledge infrastructure program was $2 billion from the federal government, and about $600 million of that, for the first time ever, went to colleges.

But to your point as to what is defined as a highly skilled worker, I have absolutely no objection to your point and we'll take that under advisement.