Industry Committee on May 30th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you, Mrs. Bertrand.

That's now the end of our seven-minute round. We have enough time for two more questioners.

Seeing that the last two questioners are Mr. Warawa and Mr. Harris, mentioning Mr. Harris's name reminds me that I should remind the witnesses of something. If you have any additional information that you're not able to provide in your opening remarks or by answering questions, you can submit it in writing to the clerk. He will make sure it's then in both official languages and distributed to the committee forthwith.

Now, on to Mr. Warawa for five minutes.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to also thank the witnesses for being with us today.

I want to focus on a 2005 study from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards. I'm sure you're all aware of that. It highlighted the differences between what is happening in Canada and the United States.

I'm quite pleased that we have the president and chief executive officer with the chamber of commerce. In my riding of Langley, the chamber of commerce is very busy and connected in encouraging development using the Internet, creating Internet sites, and providing access to the market. In spite of that, I think a vast majority of people in small and medium-sized businesses who have been doing business for a long time are not changing with the times.

The government's responsibility is to create this atmosphere for being business friendly, and I think we are doing that. But how do organizations like the chamber of commerce, and other organizations, assist business to take that step, to change with the times and take advantage of the incredible opportunities they have?

[Françoise Bertrand]

That's what we do. We have created lots of initiatives with the local chambers in order to inform and educate them, because there is a matter of competency here. There's also the matter that baby boomers are not as at ease with the technology as probably the newcomers will be. There is a necessity to open up their minds, to demystify the situation by showing them, so they're learning how they can really take advantage.

Certainly my colleague, François, has already done lots of that with the smaller businesses. He can talk about specific examples.

[François Morin]

I think the role of the IT committee of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec is actually to promote the adoption of technology. We call it technology adoption for prosperity, which is TAP. It's a program we're putting in place with the Fédération des chambres de commerce. Reducing the cycle of adoption of new technologies for SMEs is really key. I think most of the CEOs or SME presidents do understand the value of having technology, or adopting new technology, to increase productivity, to increase performance, and to be able to reach the world through the Internet. This is not even an issue any more when you reach out to those companies.

What's really important for them is the how and the what. The key right now is that there are so many offerings, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and so forth, they need to find leadership, solutions, and technology that can actually be leveraged for their own companies. This is where we are at. Technology adoption for prosperity is not a question of whether it's really important; now we need to promote how and what we can do with those technologies for SMEs across Quebec, and make sure they understand what kinds of technologies could be adopted for their own productivity and performance.

[Françoise Bertrand]

Affordability, so financial incentives are key. If they are not in place, the promptness with which new approaches are adopted will be slower, and time is of the essence right now, we believe.

[François Morin]

Mobile applications are easier to understand for these SMEs across Quebec, as they see value using mobile applications at a low cost, and they can actually see the ROI in a short period of time.

[Françoise Bertrand]

Lots don't renew their websites, but everyone has a cellphone.

[François Morin]

It's a lot of information that we're throwing at you, but in a nutshell, the Fédération des chambres de commerce is very active within the committee I'm chairing, and also in working with the provincial government to make sure that the program I was mentioning earlier,

tax credit for developing e-business,

will be renewed.

We're working with the enterprise, for the enterprise,

with Quebec chambers of commerce

and also with the provincial government.

[Françoise Bertrand]

We have an initiative with local chambers in the States right now, with the help of DEQ Quebec. We are in the process of installing platforms by which we'll be doing transactional business with local business in the United States. So B2B trade is always an important component of not only manufacturing but services as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much.

That's all the time we have.

On to Mr. Harris for five minutes.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Chair. Of course I do bring it up all the time.

To the Fédération des chambres des communes, the Business Development Bank of Canada was here earlier this week....

Sorry?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

You wanted to talk about chambers of commerce.

[Françoise Bertrand]

It's fine with me.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Sorry, I meant to say chambers of commerce. I would cause trouble if I were to talk about a House of Commons in Quebec. Quebec has its National Assembly, and I'll leave it at that.

The Business Development Bank of Canada was here on Tuesday and mentioned programs that they have in regard to encouraging small business to build websites and to adopt technology. Are your members making use of those programs?

[Françoise Bertrand]

When we do regroup our committee on manufacturing innovation...the number one institution that is helping SMEs, on all fronts, is the BDC. It is a very respected, very helpful institution that is very directed to the real needs, and the competencies of the staff are really something to praise.

[François Morin]

What's key here, and I was mentioning it earlier, is that a lot of SMEs in Quebec are not aware of or familiar with some of these programs. There's some promotion and awareness to be created around these programs, which by the way are very good. The question now is on having the SMEs made aware of these programs. There's some work to do there.

We are very involved with the BDC. Actually, there's someone from the BDC who sits on my technology committee.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Great. Thank you.

Certainly being aware of the available programs and services is key for small businesses. As a little suggestion to the government, we would perhaps like them to advertise in those areas, instead of advertising programs that don't yet exist on Hockey Night in Canada.

Going on to the spectrum auction coming up this November, you mentioned, for instance, the Saguenay region, where there is access to Internet—wired and wireless. Are you hearing from any of your members with regard to a lack of access in rural areas currently?

[Françoise Bertrand]

Certainly there are remote areas that still don't have broadband access. They will have local access, which of course is not optimal, but what we hear most is that they're not using the possibilities. With the mobile technology now, the more this will penetrate, the more we'll be able to say that access is no longer an issue, except for very remote regions or localities. What remains problematic is the promotion of the use of those technologies and how they can enhance their performance.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Do you think the upcoming spectrum auction will help resolve many of those issues? We haven't yet heard a plan from the government in regard to leveraging the money raised from that to invest in infrastructure, particularly in rural areas.

Do you or your members have any suggestions about that?

[Françoise Bertrand]

As I said, I'm in a conflict of interest given that I'm with Quebecor, and we'll certainly be filing as soon as it's opened.

But we think the more access we have, the more competition we have, and the more broadband we have, the better. Let's not pretend that we'll be wired in 10 to 15 years from now.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

You spoke about competition. Do you think there should be a set-aside for new and small entries as part of the spectrum auction?

I'll perhaps ask Monsieur Morin that question, so as not to put you in further conflict.

[Françoise Bertrand]

I'm not in conflict when I talk about Quebecor, but you understand that I don't want to take the role of being the speaker for Quebecor. It's not my place.

[François Morin]

I think in representing the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, we're open to an open market as far as the auctions. What will the government do with the money from the auction? This is something we haven't heard about yet.

I think we need to be reassured that some of the money will be reinvested in defining a digital economy strategy. We have worked with different organizations, such as ITAC, the Information Technology Association of Canada, to make sure we do understand what's going to happen with the money from the auctions.

As far as an auction, spectrum is always good. Opening it up is certainly something we need to look at and be careful about, but we don't see any issues around that.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much to the witnesses. We have another round that we have to get to, so we're going to suspend for a couple of minutes.

On behalf of the committee, thank you very much. Again, if you have anything else to submit, please send it to the clerk.

[Françoise Bertrand]

We will. Thank you very much for your patience with us and for inviting us. Thank you.