Industry Committee on April 21st, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you for that. Send it to the clerk, please.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

This is a very big regional development organization: 50% of Canadian employees in the knowledge-based sector are here. Half of the private sector R and D is done here. And still, if my estimation is right, you have just reached, in the last seven years, less than 5% of the manufacturing establishments here. You mentioned that you have funded 2,200 manufacturing projects out of 34,000 manufacturing establishments here.

Should you maybe focus much more on that?

[Alain Beaudoin]

Obviously, a lot of companies.... A number of projects that we have funded support specific firms, and a number of them support consortia, partnerships, and collaborations, which may have a greater impact or greater spillover benefits than you might think, especially on the first degree.

I will give you an example. We provided contributions to the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, $20 million to run a program called the SMART program. That program is about providing support to small and medium-sized enterprises in their efforts to increase their adoption of technologies in order to compete, to be productive, and to consolidate and expand their presence in global supply chains or into new markets. That is one thing that we fund, in dealing and working with third-party organizations that have their ears to the ground, have boots on the ground, and work very closely with manufacturing companies throughout the catchment area.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

I understand the last date is closed for the Canada 150 community infrastructure program. Do you have any additional funds under that program?

[Alain Beaudoin]

How many...?

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

For the Canada 150 community infrastructure program, you have $22 million for 2016-17. I think the last date to apply for that program is done. Do you have any additional funding under that?

[Alain Beaudoin]

There was a first intake of the Canada 150 program last year. There was another announcement for Canada 150 in budget 2016. The first intake was last year, for $150 million. FedDev Ontario was allocated $44 million, starting April 1, 2016, to end March 31, 2018.

Last year, we launched a call for proposals on the intake. We received in excess of 1,100 applications. The allocation of that funding was provided in the summer of 2015. The agency was in a position to support more than 380 projects for a total of $44.4 million.

Now, Mr. Chair, I referred to the budget 2016 announcement for an additional $150 million for Canada 150. The agency, along with my colleagues from the regional development agencies, is developing the details for the second intake, and details will be forthcoming.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much. The time is up.

Mr. Lobb, you have five minutes.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

My first question is on FedDev. I remember that a number of years ago, when FedDev was in its infancy, just up and running, one of the things Gary Goodyear used to mention was its low costs of operation and administration in delivering the money. I am wondering if that is still the case. Going forward, is the cost of delivering the dollars at about the same rate, or is there a different experience now?

[Susan Anzolin, Chief Financial Officer, Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario]

The authorities provided by the government to deliver our mandate have basically remained the same, so right now our operating budget to deliver our mandate is around $25 million, plus the extra for the statutory funds.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

With the new minister coming in, many of these programs...the $900 million-plus over five years.... Even though the government is in the beginning of its mandate—you are not quite mid-mandate, but certainly you are into your mandate—has the new minister instructed you to see what you can do for the last few years leading out and concluding in 2019? Or has the minister instructed you to keep it status quo until 2019, when they can look again at new programs?

[Alain Beaudoin]

Some of my colleagues and I alluded earlier to the minister's mandate letter, which has been made public, and the critical role that the regional development agencies play—as the minister has mentioned as well—in supporting the agenda and portfolio of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. We work very closely with one another in supporting the government's agenda and the mandate of the minister.

Obviously, as I alluded earlier, our role at the agency and our programs are aligned toward supporting firms at various stages of their growth, to support firms' ability to scale up, grow, and innovate. That is consistent with the priorities identified in the minister's mandate letter.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Fair enough.

It would be pretty safe to say that from here until 2019, it's not quite going to be exactly status quo, but it will pretty much stay on the direction you're heading.

[Alain Beaudoin]

We have our mandate. We continue to assess the various projects and proposals, and we intend to continue supporting innovation and a firm's ability to scale up and to compete.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

The next question I have is for Ms. King.

We had the Quebec economic arm in at the last meeting, and we had the western economic arm in, and each one alluded to economic development with indigenous people, which is fantastic. You did as well, in your speech.

Why do you perform that function but the department that is supposed to represent indigenous people doesn't work on economic development? Why is that? Why is it that you have an economic development arm to help those people? Why doesn't the department do that function?

[Janet King]

Thank you for the interesting question.

I didn't mention that CanNor was stood up at the same time as FedDev in 2009, and we grew out of the current INAC. At that time, it was decided to take the aboriginal programming that INAC had been delivering and give it to the northern agency that would be rooted, housed, and delivering it in the north. That's where that mandate and the source of funds came from.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

With these people, we want to see great success. It doesn't matter what political party we are, we want to see great success and great results.

What can you tell us briefly about some of the results you've seen since it's been split from the department?

[Janet King]

The program's good work continues, and we consolidated it. It had been quite fragmented across well-intentioned programs. We had the opportunity to consolidate the objectives, the performance measures, and the guidelines for how we deliver the program.

We have brought a few innovations to it over the last couple of years. For example, knowing that we're limited—we're a small agency across a vast part of Canada—we have established partnerships with aboriginal organizations in each one of the three territories. They sub-deliver our programs and provide community level mentoring and coaching as well. They feed up to us under certain performance measures.

We've been able to broaden the reach and the depth of the program, and we have good performance measures. I forget the exact number, but I mentioned that we measure how sustainable those new enterprises are. It's not just about creating them, because we want them to be sustainable. We have a suite of measures on our website, and I could provide you with further information if you're interested.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We move to Mr. Longfield. You have five minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you to the witnesses for coming here, and some from a long way away. I appreciate that we only see you for a short period and that there's a lot that goes on before you come here as well. Thanks for preparing the presentations and being here.

I'm going to build a bit on what Mr. Lobb was leaning toward in terms of the north.

This is maybe a very specific application, but as an example, we have a company in Guelph that's developed a water treatment application for the mining industry. It's brand new technology that puts water treatment units into shipping containers, which can then hopefully help first nations. It's located in Guelph, and funding might be coming from Guelph. As one example, this could span both the mining and the aboriginal communities in the north, and also develop jobs in southern Ontario.

On the collaboration, co-operation, and sharing of information, I believe there's a new umbrella unit where you collaborate with each other. Am I mistaken on that?

If I took this opportunity to you through southern Ontario, how could we develop it for the local businesses in the north and in the mining industry?

[Janet King]

I'll take a first crack at that.

Yes, we are now under one umbrella under Minister Bains and the Innovation, Science and Economic Development portfolio. It's proving to be tremendously interesting, as we share knowledge practices. Our people work together daily and weekly and are beginning to share knowledge and possibilities.

Right now it still at the creative stages. How are we going to share performance measures? How are we going to share programs? It's at that level. I think we'll be driving toward opportunities such as you described.

With respect to the kinds of projects and our mandate, our practice and policy has been to invest our money in the north. If there were an entrepreneur at the northern end of that, and we could enable that entrepreneur to grow that capacity in the north, that's where we'd be investing and perhaps partnering with others to bring that north.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That entrepreneur could be a service provider to maintain equipment or to help with installations and that sort of thing.

[Janet King]

That and many more, yes.

[Aime Dimatteo]

Mr. Chair, if I might just add also, we work quite collaboratively with FedDev and, in relation to the example that you've given, if there were benefits accruing to our communities in northern Ontario, we would probably be interested if there was a role for FedNor to play in helping to fund a project of that nature. We would automatically do so.

We have funded projects with universities in southern Ontario that are doing innovative technology improvements that we know will benefit our communities and our businesses. It behooves us to be as co-operative as we can and look for the best outcome for all of the stakeholders and constituents that we all serve.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Super. That's exciting.

We'll be taking that offline, I can almost guarantee you, because that's one I'd like to continue with. We have a similar company that's putting solar panels onto shipping containers and creating electricity for remote locations.

Clean technology development is something very big in my area, and we look towards your support to be able to roll some of that out. The water consortium's also a fabulous resource for us to be using.

On the domestic supply chain you mentioned and how we could tie these types of opportunities together, is there some type of a coordinating role within the umbrella group or is that something that we just deal with our local agency about to be able to take that on?