Industry Committee on March 5th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Harris, is this a point of order?

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Maybe a way to help resolve this a little—as much as I love beating up on the government, we did just make this decision on Monday, and we're Wednesday, two days later. We have many department officials here, but would it be possible if Mr. Regan has some questions for ACOA for them to be submitted, and hopefully get an answer back before things are tabled on the seventh? Just to try to find a way around it so that questions could still get answered.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I will ask one question at least to Mr. Dunlop. In general, in terms of the department and the programs we're talking about today, how is the government consulting with local communities and groups with respect to investments in business development?

[Robert Dunlop]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.

It's difficult for me to answer the general question about business development programs across the department, as my area is science, technology, and innovation. I can say, for example, on the updated science, technology, and innovation strategy that the government announced in the Speech from the Throne, that extensive consultations have been held by the minister and by officials across the country. We've received over 2,000 submissions, and those are being used right now to do a detailed study of the advice of Canadians on our programs.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

What proportion of the funds for those programs is spent in Atlantic Canada?

[Robert Dunlop]

I couldn't tell you off the top of my head.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I guess I accept that. That's it for now, Mr. Chair. I would have been anxious to ask questions about ACOA and ECBC.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you, Mr. Regan.

Now on to Ms. Crockatt for four and a half minutes.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for coming here today to answer these questions. It's great to hear about the new investments in science, technology, and innovation. As a former CEO of an R and D company, this is particularly close to my heart.

This is a historic commitment to research. In a global sense, Mr. Dunlop, how do you expect the funds committed here to change the picture for innovation in Canada.

[Robert Dunlop]

Thank you very much for the question.

As my colleague Janet Walden has said, this commitment to discovery research is a very important one. It's always been very difficult to make a distinction between discovery and applied research. For example, in astronomy they have some of the most challenging areas of development in handling massive amounts of data, and companies like IBM and Cisco are as interested in what's happening with astronomy as people who are interested in the stars.

This provides the granting council with the ability to be flexible in what's supported with a view to the future as well as doing the applied research, which is very important. As I mentioned, it's really exciting to see the Canada first research excellence fund. It is a challenge to our universities and colleges to be really creative and to think about how they can marshal resources around a research question, or around what's available in an area to take on a bigger question and achieve a more ambitious target than they would otherwise be able to do.

Additional support has been provided to keep Canada's high-energy physics lab, TRIUMF in Vancouver, going for another five years. They played a critical role in the discovery of the Higgs boson. This is a very exciting time for us working in science and technology in the federal government, and we're looking forward to implementing the decisions that were announced in budget 2014.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Good. So you're expecting that quite a bit more flexibility will lead to more innovation. Is that essentially it?

[Robert Dunlop]

It contributes to that, yes. We don't have the good ideas; the researchers do. When they come to us with a great idea, Janet likes to be able to say yes, based on the proposal.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Okay.

I was also very impressed with 10,000 researchers being supported and 30,000 students.

Of course, we're always interested in the commercialization aspect. How do you actually get all these great ideas out into the marketplace? I see that you're expecting that a significant number of small and medium-sized businesses will benefit from this.

I'm wondering if Ms. McLellan can tell us how many businesses will be supported by the program, by the NRC's IRAP, and how many jobs were created in the recent fiscal year for this program.

[Gail McLellan, Director General, Finance Branch, National Research Council of Canada]

Thank you for the question.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to answer that. I would have to get back to you in terms of the number of jobs for IRAP and the contributions to SMEs.

In terms of the supplementary (C)s, I can address those kinds of questions.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Okay. If that's something that you're able to provide us with later, that would be great.

Let's go to NSERC and SSHRC, then, and talk about the students and researchers there. This is going to support undergraduate, graduate, and postgrad students to ensure that our country is going to attract, maintain, and retain the top research talent in the world. Can you talk about how many students there are and what these students and researchers are actually going to be doing?

I think that's for you, Ms. Gobel.

[Ursula Gobel]

Within the parameters of the new Canada first research excellence program, those will be defined as the program is developed, but we can certainly look to the successes that we've achieved here in Canada. Through the Canada excellence research chairs program, the Canada research chairs program, and certainly within the programs that we support at SSHRC, we're seeing that the talent, the level of excellence, is so significant. By having top research talent here, they're attracting those talents to the actual institution, so the learning and the research skills are being developed at a much earlier stage in the student's career and at the undergraduate level.

Those principles will certainly be taken into account as the parameters for the program are developed. How can we encourage greater opportunities—

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

What I'm trying to get at, actually—and maybe I didn't phrase the question well—is, how can we expect more commercialization to happen as a result of the funds that are being allocated here?

[Ursula Gobel]

In terms of commercialization, each of the councils has specific programs that address that particular need. The NCE program is certainly a good example of that.

At SSHRC, our partnership program encourages end-to-end research. One key principle there, even as it applies to NSERC, is that for commercialization, innovation, competitiveness, and productivity, success in those areas really depends on a multidisciplinary approach.

You can have a terrific product and you can have a terrific marketable product, but unless you understand those markets, and unless you understand the customers for those markets, it can only go so far. That has been one of the lagging challenges for Canada in terms of growing small businesses into large competitive businesses internationally. That's where, collectively, the councils can really make a difference in creating an ecosystem that really brings the best of ideas together.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much, Madam Crockatt.

I want to thank the witnesses on behalf of the committee. We appreciate your taking the time especially as it was very limited notice that we gave you. So we appreciate your investment here in the committee to answer questions.

Colleagues, because of the nature of the next supply day, I was just advised that these supplementary estimates are deemed adopted by the end of the day today. So they're basically deemed reported back. In other words, you can choose if you want me to just submit something in the House but it's....

[An hon. member]

On division.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Okay.

So even though they are deemed adopted tonight, do you still want a report in the House tomorrow, after the fact?

[An hon. member]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

It's my understanding that it's done tonight. Is that a procedure we can do?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Andrew Bartholomew Chaplin]

Yes.

[An hon. member]

I thought it was by the seventh.