Industry Committee on April 21st, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

To finish off this round, Cheryl, you have two minutes.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you very much. I'm very pleased to be here. You can probably tell this is my first time here too, so I'm catching up on my notes.

I'm from the riding of Windsor—Tecumseh, which is right next to the riding of Windsor West. I have a portion of Essex County as part of my riding.

We're very interested in innovation. I know you hear a lot about the automotive sector, but historically—and I'm going back to the 1970s—research was always something the government had prioritized. We worked in collaboration on both sides of the river. I remember when I was in high school in the 1970s. In Pontiac, Michigan, all the researchers came together with funding, and they were working on improving batteries.

My point is that you always have to have the next big thing, so I'm glad to see that research is a big part of the mandate. That's something we can't underestimate.

All I wanted to do was to ask you a little bit about some of the challenges we still have in our area, which were mentioned in I believe the comments from Alain. There is competition from emerging markets. I wondered if you could explain a little bit or describe a little bit what those markets are.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

You've got 30 seconds.

[Alain Beaudoin]

You talked about challenges facing the businesses from that perspective, including competition from around the world—emerging markets as well—and opportunities for farms to build and become more competitive in leveraging their capacity. You talked about research.

In Windsor we've worked with the local community and the key stakeholders to try to build and leverage their comparative advantages.

You might be familiar with the Institute for Border Logistics and Security, which is trying to bring the key economic players around the region to leverage the comparative advantage that the Windsor region has to support firms' ability to be more successful in tapping into existing markets, such as the United States, but also emerging markets, to ensure that they become more efficient in tapping into those new markets or supply chains.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

We have enough time to do one round of three questions. We're going to split it evenly. We're going to have six minutes, six minutes, and the NDP will have six minutes.

Mr. Longfield.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're very generous.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

I know I am.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

It shows how efficiently these answers are coming out as well. Thank you to the witnesses again.

I'm a past mentor at Innovation Guelph, an organization that I worked on developing and that also received some FedDev funding well after I was gone—no conflict. Bioenterprise also received some funding.

I experienced the application process working with FedDev in the early stages. It was very difficult for businesses to navigate. Industry supports the application process, so most of the time businesses in our area were getting other companies to do their applications for them.

I haven't been involved for a few years, but has there been an evolution of the application process, or is that a concern you're working on? Could you elaborate on the application process? A lot of funding goes to people writing applications versus doing innovation.

[Alain Beaudoin]

We always try to make life easier for the various proponents in the projects coming forward. This is why we always encourage the various proponents to engage with the officers and the managers at the outset before submitting a proposal, to make sure they have a better understanding of the various eligibility criteria and information they need to put forward.

Our experience has always been that it's always more successful to have that dialogue when there's engagement at the outset. That said, we're mindful of the fact that it could be challenging at times, and we're always striving to increase and improve our effectiveness.

Earlier our colleagues referred to the fact that we're all under the same portfolio, under Minister Bains and Innovation, Science and Economic Development. We intend to compare notes and share best practices as to how we can serve the various stakeholders and proponents more effectively as they engage with the government.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Is there anything else?

[Aime Dimatteo]

Mr. Chair, three things related to your question come to mind from our perspective. First, as Alain said, we've written the criteria for the program in layman's language. It has to be easy to understand as a starting point.

Second, we are engaged with all our stakeholders right from the get-go. All the staff of FedNor are in northern Ontario in the field and we know our stakeholders intimately. We provide as much advice as we can informally before they even begin the application process.

Third, we've learned from the private sector in particular that time is money. The application processes were taking too long, so we've developed a two-stage application process. Within two pages, six questions, we can tell you whether we think you're eligible or not before we ask you to do any heavy lifting, like starting to develop a business plan and spending money.

That two-stage process is proving very successful, and we're hearing very positively from the client group that it is saving both time and money from their perspectives.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

It will definitely help us to know those things going forward, so thank you.

In terms of the application process, then, we had federal and provincial funds going into some of the projects. Sometimes municipalities had to be involved. With water treatment plants, you had to go through municipalities. Also, coordinating the different levels of government became very complicated.

At the end of the review process, sometimes we just got a “no”, a mysterious no; you've had eight meetings, you've gone through all of this effort, and you're left hanging. People were saying that it was just a political process, that they were in the wrong riding. Without having a really firm “this is why your application was denied”, they would have different reasons for us having a failure

Is there some type of a file closure system that's better than just leaving people guessing that it's a political decision that's being made?

[Aime Dimatteo]

I can tell you on behalf of FedNor that, as a practice, any project that is rejected gets a very meaningful letter advising what the rationale was by which the project was rejected, because sometimes we misunderstand the project, or sometimes a proponent says to us that they misrepresented what they really wanted to do. It provides for an appeal mechanism. They just don't get told “we regret to advise you, have a nice day, and goodbye...”. They get told why we made the decision that we did.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Mr. Beaudoin, is that happening in Waterloo?

[Alain Beaudoin]

Thank you for your question.

In our case, as Aime mentioned at the outset, we're trying to work with the stakeholders to make sure that we can demystify the process and, to start with, answer the basic questions.

I referred to the eligibility criteria and the guidelines. In our case, all of these are made public. They're very clear as to what we're expecting in terms of providing information along those lines to make sure the proponents have clarity and transparency as to what is being requested.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

You have 30 seconds.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

On that follow-up report, if I had had that in my hands, sometimes that would have helped me go back to the clients. We were being funded by IRAP to do some of the work of identifying business development and then bringing in FedDev. Coordinating with the federal, provincial, and municipal levels was one thing, but using agencies such as Bioenterprise, which you're doing, makes a lot of sense. It's money well spent, but it's that tie-up to learning, and if it was a no, why it was a no, that would be very helpful.

[Alain Beaudoin]

I don't have any information as to the particular case you're referring to, but one other thing we're trying to do is work very closely with the various partners, especially when they're all involved in a specific project. We will take good note of your feedback around this table.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Dreeshen, you have six minutes.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

As Mr. Longfield has said, it's good to know that there hasn't been any political interference in any way in any of the application processes. We recognize that, and we appreciate the work you do on behalf of taxpayers to make sure that projects are done based on merit.

I should also thank Mr. Baylis for allowing us to get the answer to the education piece that I asked about earlier.

Going back to one of our other tables, this point has to do with the certification and market access program for seals, the $63,000 in the main estimates that we are taking a look at. I'm interested in where this is going and if there's any way that this is tied into or in conjunction with any indigenous hunting.

I understand the relationships that exist there. I understand how food security is still a chief concern for remote northern communities. There's also this basic discussion about northern greenhouses, which of course is good, but when you're in the territories, you realize that there's something else that is very critical, and that is their hunting, fishing, and trapping businesses.

I'm curious to know if you can expand on that somewhat, so that for those us who don't live in the north, we can recognize what the realities are and the things we can do to make sure that we ensure their ways of life.

[Janet King]

Yes. I'll be brief.

Yes, absolutely, seal hunting is a critical aspect of sustenance in many communities, particularly in the Inuit part of the north, the marine Inuit part of the north. It has been an ongoing source of food, clothing, and so on, and it is now a source of other kinds of local arts and crafts as well, which we support.

The certification and market access program for seals arose from Canada's response to the EU ban on seal products and, following the resolution of that issue, how to enable indigenous peoples, in the north in particular, to re-access that market. We partner with the Government of Nunavut, and the $63,000 goes to working with the indigenous hunters and craftspeople to be able to be better positioned to market, distribute, and promote these goods, particularly into the EU market. It has a broader impact than that, though, we're pleased to note.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Could you comment on what's involved with the northern greenhouse initiative?

[Janet King]

The northern greenhouse initiative was launched in summer 2014. It was actually CanNor's first effort as a new agency at an expression of interest, at trying to find out what technology interests were out there, in which we could invest to move greenhouse technology further along the line to commercialization while contributing to food security across the north. I'm pleased to say that we raised all kinds of interest and invested in quite a diverse suite of either very local or more, shall we say, structured approaches to furthering greenhouse technology in the north.

We've essentially completed the objectives of that program. It doesn't mean we'll stop investing in greenhouses. That's now embedded in our broad programming.