Industry Committee on May 5th, 2016

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

For the last 10 years, yes.

My questions are really aimed, as I said, at the IRAP and the CAIP program, the accelerator program.

With respect to the accelerator program, now that you know the information I'm looking for, are you actually monitoring to see the outcome of that investment? How much money was invested, and are you monitoring to see the outcome?

[Bogdan Ciobanu]

The CAIP program is a $100-million program over five years. This is the third year of the program. There are 16 successful recipients all over the country, and I will provide you with a list. Every contribution agreement has clear and specific objectives and targets, which are monitored regularly by our field staff. They are present there. Some of them are already co-located with those incubators and accelerators; some are not. They are monitored regularly. With every claim that the accelerator or incubator provides, they must provide also the report on achievements.

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

As you went through the selection process, was there any political interference, or was there any political guidance when it came to choosing any of those incubators?

[Bogdan Ciobanu]

IRAP was not the decision-maker in this process. IRAP manages the program for Finance Canada, and the Minister of Finance selected a committee of business people—people independent of the government—who made the selection. IRAP provided a pre-screening and the longer list of pre-screened incubators and accelerators, and the committee made the final decision and recommendation to the Minister of Finance.

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

Is the list of those committee members a public list?

[Bogdan Ciobanu]

It must be public, yes.

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

Could I have that list, too?

[Bogdan Ciobanu]

I'll try to find this list, yes.

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

Those 16 have been funded. To my understanding, they all pre-existed, so we'd have to see something more coming out of them. What is the more that you're tracking?

[Bogdan Ciobanu]

There are two things: more of the same, or new initiatives. Every contribution agreement is different. There are no two alike, because every incubator and accelerator is different from the others. They have different clientele and they operate in different environments. So their objectives are different, but there are two important things that are common: the objectives must be in addition to what they already do, or they must be new and different things.

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

How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

You have 40 seconds.

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

Canada has talked a lot about having cluster-specific areas that we are very good at, such as aerospace in Montreal. Was there any thought given in this process to helping incubators that would tie into a cluster that we're trying to promote? Was there anything sector-specific or cluster-specific in choosing or driving these choices?

[Bogdan Ciobanu]

Not to my knowledge; I don't know of any—

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

It was a kind of scatterbrained—

[Bogdan Ciobanu]

—sector-specific.... There was no indication—

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

It was just whatever comes, comes.

[Bogdan Ciobanu]

The idea was, let's find the best incubators and accelerators out there—“best” meaning they have achieved better growth for their clients and increased investment in those clients—and try to help them do more.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Finally, Mr.—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I'm good.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

We are good.

Thank you very much for coming and answering questions. It was very exciting to watch all the giddy emotion of all the scientists in the room. Thank you very much.

For the committee, I just want to remind everybody that on Tuesday we start our manufacturing study. We will have the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which has been confirmed, and the Conference Board of Canada, for Tuesday.

Thank you very much for a very productive session.

I will adjourn the meeting.