Evidence of meeting #10 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-President, Business Innovation and Community Development, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
The $920 million is the—
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Is it the way I'm framing it? I don't know. I'm just trying to see...they've got $200 million in a special fund.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
I'm just going to put your time on hold for a second.
Maybe it would be helpful if you just took a minute and explained the overall cost, the program of $900 and whatever million.... Explain that, and then explain the $200 million, because I think where Mr. Masse is going is if you spend the $200 million on manufacturing and somebody comes along with a great idea, is there any money left beyond that, or do we have to wait till 2019?
Is that what you're asking, Mr. Masse?
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Yes. I'm not asking for funds from other automotive.... This is a specific fund in the file. If they use up the funds, do we need to wait for a further budget allocation for that to be renewed, or is it going to be automatically renewed? I don't know.
Vice-President, Business Innovation and Community Development, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
My apologies if I wasn't clear.
Vice-President, Business Innovation and Community Development, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
With regard to the advanced manufacturing fund, as I mentioned earlier, we have a total budget of $920 million. The advanced manufacturing fund is part of that. The fund has a dedicated amount of $200 million, which will be sunsetting at the same time as the...in March of 2019. We had two intakes, one that closed in October 2014 and a second one that closed in October 2015.
I referred to five projects that have been announced for a total of $95 million. We're assessing the various projects that we've received. We will put forward some recommendations. That will be at the discretion of the minister. If and when all the funding has been committed, up to $200 million, then the fund will be maxed out at this stage.
Vice-President, Business Innovation and Community Development, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
My apologies if I wasn't clear.
NDP
Liberal
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
I will focus on FedDev for southern Ontario.
Mr. Chair, I should say that I'm very disappointed that the president of FedDev for southern Ontario is not here. This is the biggest regional development agency across Canada. It's bigger than several of them combined. Out of ten members here, five members represent the area covered by FedDev for southern Ontario. Hopefully we will consider inviting her again. Maybe it's to deal with some personal health issues that she is not here. I think we should seriously consider inviting her again. This is with all due respect to Mr. Alain Beaudoin. We had a chat two days back, and I will go along the same lines he and I had talked about.
Ottawa is home to 1,750 knowledge-based companies, more than in Kitchener-Waterloo. Ottawa has the second-largest number of Ph.D.s, scientists, and engineers in all of North America. Ottawa has been, I don't want to use the word “discarded”, but almost ignored, as if it does not exist in the books of FedDev for southern Ontario. All of the focus on the GTA and the Kitchener-Waterloo area. In the last six years, Ottawa has received just $35 million versus the GTA getting around $350 million, and even Kitchener-Waterloo $68 million.
Why is Ottawa not considered for funding through your organization?
Vice-President, Business Innovation and Community Development, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
At the outset, as I said in my remarks, the agency is focused on innovation and has a suite of programs meant to support businesses at various stages of their growth. It is also meant to support the innovation ecosystem. I referred to the fact that there are 35 colleges and universities. There are 34,000 establishments. There are a number of companies across the region.
We cover 37 census divisions from west to east and north to south. We receive a lot of requests. We receive a lot of proposals for funding through our various program suites. Our assessment is based on the proposals and the projects that we do receive. It's based on merit and it's based on—
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Maybe it's because you are so focused on the Kitchener-Waterloo area and the GTA that you don't have sufficient resources to look at proposals from Ottawa.
I shared these numbers with you well in advance. Can you please send to the committee a regional breakdown of how much is spent in the GTA, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Ottawa? That would be good information for us.
Vice-President, Business Innovation and Community Development, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
We can follow up and provide information. We can send it to the committee.