Industry Committee on May 1st, 2018

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

I'm just saying those jobs are created on the entire economy now.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

But you couldn't tell people in Alberta how many jobs would be created?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Fifty thousand jobs have been created in Alberta since we formed the government.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

For $5.5 billion, is that directly related to that?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

That's part of our strategy. Grants and contributions aren't the only thing we do as a government to support the economy.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Let's do substractive—

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

For example, BDC, when Alberta went through a difficult time—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

How many of those 50,000 jobs were created by people who didn't get any money from you?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

What do you mean by “didn't get any money from you”?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

If a company created a job, I'm assuming it would be included in that figure.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Our job is to create the conditions for success for business. Sometimes there's a direct correlation. Sometimes an indirect correlation. Our policies in general have created an environment where we have record GDP growth and record job creation, and a historic low unemployment rate of 5.8%.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I will ask a different way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

I hate to cut you off, but we are out of time.

We're going to move to Mr. Graham. You have five minutes, please.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

I think along the same line we've actually seen, in my area, us go from a shortage of jobs to a shortage of workers so something is working. I appreciate that.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Way to go.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I want to thank you also for the tremendous work you have been doing in helping us get rural Canada off of our heavy reliance on smoke signals and carrier pigeons for Internet, what you might know as dial-up and satellite.

We spent years on what I call “innovating to connect”. My own home relies on a low-reliability, low-speed relayed wireless system. It goes from one lake to the next lake to a house that connects to a cable system. Eventually sometimes you have Internet. It's pretty awesome.

I want to thank you for the comments you made to Mr. Masse regarding connect to innovate. For me it's a very visionary program. Do you have more comments after what you said to him on connect to innovate before I dive into some of the related topics?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

The vision is very clear. We want to break that digital divide. We think investments in high-speed Internet in rural and remote communities is almost a matter of life and death in some cases. It's absolutely essential for businesses that want to go online and grow. It's essential for those who want to get a world-class education. It's essential for some communities when it comes to health care. There are so many important aspects to bridging that digital divide. That's why we were very proud of introducing this program. This is a meaningful first step. We want to continue to do more. We look forward to your thoughts and ideas on that.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I have tons.

You mentioned the digital divide. I think that's a really important point. One aspect you talk about a whole lot less is the cellphone service. In rural Canada, it's dire, at least in my riding. Rural cellphone service is as dire as Internet service.

Are you looking for creative new solutions to solve this rather less discussed aspect of the digital divide?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

I think one of the advantages of the connect to innovate program, for example, is that it provides that fibre backbone infrastructure, which is helpful for cellphone towers. We think the issue you raise right there is connected to that program as well. We believe in many cases that this fibre backbone infrastructure will allow for those cell towers to be established, which will deal with that issue as well.

We recognize there are other mechanisms in place, other solutions that exist as well, and we're very open to that. I know you have played a leadership role in discussing those in caucus and in committee as well. Just like intellectual property, just like the study on broadband, just like the study you did on manufacturing, we really value the work that's done in this committee. It really helps shape a lot of our programs and policies.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I appreciate that.

There is a worldwide shortage of programmers. It's as bad as the worldwide shortage of pilots. When we say we're connecting to innovate, for me, solving the coder issue is a big part of the innovation part of that equation. It's inextricably tied to the visionary CanCode program. Can you bring us up to date in more detail on CanCode: where we are, how it improves inclusiveness, how it's going to get a new generation to understand technology, and how the money is being spent? How are your own coding lessons going?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

I'm still a bit challenged with my coding. These young kids can outmanoeuvre me all the time.

I was in Mississauga last week announcing a specific program, code:mobile, for this initiative where a fleet is purchased to allow different vehicles to help kids code in places across the country.

Overall, the program objective is very simple: one million kids will learn how to code. This is a $50-million program. Sixty thousand teachers will also get tools to help students better learn coding. This is not simply about coding. It's about digital literacy and digital skills. It's about making sure that young people have the tools they need to succeed in the new digital economy.

This investment is also strengthening our domestic pipeline. Many of the jobs that will be created will be related to coding and STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—but we have specific targets around more girls learning how to code. In the past, for example, 38% of graduates from STEM programs were women, but if you look at STEM-related jobs, it's only 21%. We can and must do a better job of, not only attracting more women into the STEM-related fields but making sure that they stay in those fields, because those are better-paying jobs, and there's high-growth opportunities in those areas as well. That's why coding is designed to also focus on indigenous populations. In the past they might not have necessarily had those opportunities. We're very thoughtful of being more inclusive in some of our programs.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you for your leadership on this.

I'm out of time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We're going to move to Mr. Lloyd.

You have three minutes.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Bains and Mr. Knubley, for coming in. I want to say for the record that we have your agreement that you will be tabling the information on how much of the funding from the $5.5 billion will be going towards Alberta companies and how many direct jobs that would create.

Going into my question, Minister Bains, you're in charge of the proposed takeover of Aecon by Chinese state-owned China Communications and Construction Company, which, in my opinion, represents a threat to the viability of small and medium-sized enterprises. For example, they recently bid on a Sampson Cree water plant and left about a million dollars on the table underbidding Canadian companies. This poses a real threat to the construction centre.

Have you as minister undertaken to assess the impact of Aecon's takeover by a Chinese state-owned enterprise on small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

As you know, I'm the minister responsible for the Investment Canada Act. Under that, I have a responsibility to do a thorough net economic benefit analysis. The issues you raised would be under my purview, and those are the things we would analyze.

There are two dimensions to this. There is the economic benefit and the test and the analysis that needs to be done. As you know, all such transactions are subject to a national security review. This is a multi-step process that exists. I work very closely with Minister Goodale and our security intelligence agencies—