Industry Committee on April 25th, 2013

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

It would not be captured. Even though I'm paying $100 online, it wouldn't be captured, because I'd go to get the good, that is, the coffee.

[Josie Brocca, Acting Director, Digital Adoption Directorate, Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications, Department of Industry]

Just to clarify that, the stats that are on slide 6 are reported by the business. So when you as a consumer load your Tim Hortons card, that would be captured in another set of statistics, which StatsCan has called “The Canadian Internet use survey”. Those types of activities would be included in the responses you would give there. But these are just the businesses actually selling a good or service over their website.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Lake.

We'll now move on to Mr. Harris for five minutes.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just to follow up on that, where it might actually get captured is if Tim Hortons is reporting that they're selling online. Then it would be captured here.

[Josie Brocca]

That's correct.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

First off, I actually want to thank Mr. Carmichael for asking a few of the questions I was going to ask. Now I can delve a little bit deeper in regard to productivity and broadband costs—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

—but first I just want to go back to the Canada job grant. When is this program actually going to come into effect and start training people?

[Alain Beaudoin]

I'm sorry. We're not responsible for that program, and we don't have details on that front.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Okay, but since you did bring up the program in the discussion earlier in regard to one of the potential solutions, it would be good to have that kind of information available. It makes it a little hard to ask my next question, which would have been, what kinds of studies have been done to measure the impact of that change? I'll leave that for another time.

What kind of digital strategy does the government have with respect to the digital adoption of technologies for SMEs, for business in general?

[Alain Beaudoin]

Thank you.

I referred to some elements before with regard to the most recent initiatives that the government has put in place.

There is the digital transformation program, which IRAP is responsible for. It was announced in budget 2011 and launched in November 2011. You will have the executive director here in a couple of weeks from now.

This is an $80-million program that is meant to provide support for companies in order to increase their adoption and use of ICTs. It provides funds to firms. It also provides advisory services to these firms, because they have what they call “industrial technology advisers” in IRAP. These industrial technology advisers are specifically dedicated to helping firms find customized solutions to their problems.

I also referred to the fact that the BDC has a website that provides free service and free advice online, and it actually provides free assessments of the sophistication and efficiency of your website. As I referred to earlier, they've already done more than 20,000 assessments of those websites. SMEs have the opportunity to do that. Also, they've put aside—

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Sir, I'm just going to stop you, because I think my colleague has a point of order to raise.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Regan, I was anticipating your question about the executive director of IRAP coming in—

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Well, my question is that Mr. Beaudoin has I think twice mentioned people who are coming to our committee and whom we, as members of the committee, haven't heard about and don't know about yet. So I'm wondering how he knows who is coming before the committee when we don't even know, and you don't seem to know.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

I don't have it memorized, but we have a witness list. I don't think it's in camera or anything like that, but is public knowledge. So if you want me to verify that the people are booked, I can—

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if Mr. Regan.... Is there is a law that if someone else got called to be a witness before the committee, they can't tell another witness before the committee that they've been called? I'm not aware of such a law.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chairman, it just seems odd to me that we're hearing it from the.... I don't think we've seen a list ourselves of who is coming before the committee, so it just strikes me as rather strange.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Okay—

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

I move that we let the clerk do his job and just trust him to do it.

[An hon. member]

It's not a point of order—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Yes, I stopped on a point of information, and we'll certainly confirm the witnesses for you, Mr. Regan, but we'll let Mr. Harris proceed now.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Before we start the clock, how much time do I have?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

You have two minutes left.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you.

Going back to earlier comments, in your opening presentation you spoke about how 85% of businesses have access to high-speed Internet, and then you made reference later on to the previous testimony about 99% of individuals having access to high-speed.

Why is there a 15% gap between businesses that have access to high-speed and individuals, because getting to the home tends to be even more difficult than getting to the business?

[Alain Beaudoin]

What I referred to are the firms with current connectivity, so the ones that are connected, as opposed to the fact that they have access. Some firms decide not to be connected. It was business connectivity, sir. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. That's what it's all about.