Industry Committee on May 12th, 2016

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

I think the third point is the key.

[Christine Trauttmansdorff]

For colleges and institutes, as MaryLynn indicated, a lot of the entrepreneurial activities are funded through the applied research funding that the colleges and institutes receive. Eighty-four percent of our members are reporting that they've supported student entrepreneurship. Over 10,000 students received support to pursue an entrepreneurial idea in 2014-15.

I mentioned that a lot of the faculty are entrepreneurs themselves, so they're building that into their discussions every day. We have lot of student-led enterprises in our space, and as a fabulous example we have a brewery that is right from production to retail. They're offering that on campus.

Lakeland College has a student-managed farm, complete end-to-end—

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

I love it but I'm going to have to cut you off.

Mr. Brassard, you have five minutes.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First of all, it's MaryLynn West-Moynes' appearance that compels me to be here. I want to congratulate you on the success of Georgian College. I know that you're a strong leader within our community, and certainly have driven Georgian to the place where it is today, will continue to be, and will grow for sure.

I'm curious about the environmental scan that you talked about. I know that is being dealt with at a local level, and I'm just wondering, Christine and Paul—and MaryLynn spoke about this—is there anything similar that is being done at a national level with respect to that environmental scan that—

[Paul Davidson]

On the future of manufacturing?

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Something similar to what Georgian College is doing.

[Christine Trauttmansdorff]

Not to my knowledge, although I suspect some of our colleagues in the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Canadian Manufacturing Network could probably give you a much more complete answer. I have to tell you, just in the same way that Paul referred to our participation in the human resources policy committee of the Chamber of Commerce, the networks with those associations and the groups with the academic community are very active.

[Paul Davidson]

Yes, there's work being done in a number of places. There's no one-stop shop on this, but I think the biggest concern is the concern about disruption in the economy, and how advances in research are changing our economy so quickly. You look at large enterprises that have had a similar business for 100 years or more suddenly having to find a solution in 72 hours to a new threat to their business. The point I would make is that we are living in a disruptive age and we have to have the tools in the tool box to cope with that disruption.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

I want to focus on something else that was brought up. The other day in the House, as I was debating the budget implementation bill, I mentioned the innovation agenda. Last week we had Startup Canada here, with 150,000 people across the country being represented. I think probably many of us in this room met with them.

In Barrie we have two local persons, Chad Ballantyne and his wife Sandra, who really are the epitome of those micro-entrepreneurs, the ones who are starting to sow the seeds of business. I asked Chad what they were focused on the other day. Part of their agenda proposes that a lot of the investment that's being made in this budget is pouring into a handful of clusters. I made some notes on what he said. He said it's too narrow a focus, and limits the investment opportunity to later-stage enterprises in R and D sectors, ignoring those early-stage start-ups that could in fact become the future manufacturers of the country. He also said there's little funding, if any, for these types of post-R and D communities and companies despite their sector success.

I know our time is limited, but I have a quick question for all three of you. Innovation research centres will not only do for smaller cities and towns...but they also have the aim to grow those local incubators that can drive the type of creativity and job growth that we see. From your standpoint, do you see any opportunity, or should there be another focus, of moving away from that sliver and growing it some more? I'm just wondering if you could comment on that.

[Paul Davidson]

One of the challenges that we face in our case, with universities and other parts of the post-secondary system, is what are the signals the market is sending? Five years ago, I was before a committee like this, and the issue was that we don't have nearly enough money for start-ups. More recently we've been told, actually, there is quite a bit of money for start-ups, and what we really need is getting across the valley of death. Then you talk about others who say, actually, what we need is a third tranche of focused clusters.

I think if I could leave a message with you from universities—I won't speak for my colleagues formally, but I know they're committed to it as well—it would be that we're here to deliver for Canada. Twenty years ago you said that you wanted globally competitive research. We now have globally competitive research. When you said you wanted a new generation of faculty, we turned over our faculty. When you said you wanted us to grow our campuses, we grew our campuses.

So as you do your work, be really sure that the charge you give us is precisely what you want, because we will over-deliver.

[Christine Trauttmansdorff]

Maybe I can add something. If you have an opportunity to go to one of our campuses and talk to people like MaryLynn and people who are running start-up garages and innovation centres and ask them exactly that question, I think you'll get answers that are way better than anything I can give you.

[Dr. MaryLynn West-Moynes]

Can I add something as well, please?

This is a good idea for you to consider. There's an angel investors group in Owen Sound that is about to create a repayment fund. It would be interesting for your committee to look at seeding money that would be managed by a group. When businesses were successful, over a period of time they would pay back the money that would be used, over and over, for what we're calling the small people who don't have the skills. It would be a brilliant idea.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Oh, no problem. You got an extra minute out of that one.

Mr. Arya—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

It was a good answer.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

It was a great answer. I'm not used to having the time.

You know what? I'll just leave it there. I appreciate the time you've given me.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Go ahead.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of you for coming here.

You know, I worked with universities, especially Carleton University, in my previous profession. We set up a lab for very advanced research in digital signal processing. I worked with Roseann Runte. Of course, with the colleges I worked on the board of Invest Ottawa. The Algonquin College president was my colleague on the board for three years.

Paul, you mentioned the placement problem. On the one hand, we have the placement problem. On the other hand, Christine mentioned job vacancies, which are getting difficult to fill in the manufacturing sector. I know there's a disconnect, especially with respect to manufacturing jobs. For service sector jobs, banking, almost anybody can fill in, but for the manufacturing sector we need specific skills, especially in STEM at the universities and the colleges here.

You mentioned the $10 billion being brought in by Canadian international students. That's good, but correct me if I am wrong on this. People tell me that today the percentage of post-graduate Canadian students, especially on the technology side, is getting lower and lower. Is that a fact, and if so, should we not encourage more Canadian students to head for higher studies in the technology sector?

[Paul Davidson]

You have a couple of very good questions there.

We need more postgraduate opportunities for Canadians. We are behind the U.S., Germany, and the U.K. in terms of the number of graduates we have per capita or the graduate per GDP number. By any measure, we do not have enough.

That's one reason why the pull factor is harder. We don't have as many Ph.D.s and graduate students working in business as there are in the United States, and they understand how to connect with the post-secondary system. I would just nuance it to say we're quite pleased that we have a number of international students at the graduate level, because that's a demonstration of the world-class excellence that they're coming to Canada to pursue.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

It's time, as Christine was mentioning, to start bringing this knowledge to the high school students in terms of the importance of studying in college. In the same way, I think a university should also encourage students to look at the very long term and to go into the STEM sector or STEM stream so we can get graduates in there.

Christine, I think you mentioned that you are in enrolled in the HR committee of the CME.

Paul, I guess you're also a member there.

With regard to your presence there, where do you think the manufacturing sector is going? Where do you think the shortage of skilled workers will be felt? Will it be in the 3-D robotics, or photonics, or space technology? Where do you think there is going to be a problem in the near future?

[Christine Trauttmansdorff]

I think you've captured a good list right there. Paul has alluded to the disruptive nature of technology. Things are changing so quickly. Keeping skills current is vitally important, and not only in making sure that we're training students today for the jobs of tomorrow as much as we possibly can. It comes back to equipment, facilities, and always being at the leading edge.

Students are the bridge between the old and the new. You have to train them on what's in place today so that they can go in and take those jobs, but they also have to be trained on what the technology is going to be tomorrow. They're the ones who are bringing that innovative thinking into a lot of workplaces and saying, “Hey, I trained on a 3-D printer when I was at school, and I think you could maybe use one here.” They see that innovation in the companies they're working with.

[Paul Davidson]

If I could, I'll jump in on that.

First of all, I'm really pleased about the collaborative nature of the conversation today, because one of the things that we've been saying for years is that it's both...and. We need more of everything in this country. We need more. We need to have ambition.

There's another piece around STEM. In talking with employers right across the country, some through the training group, some through the new Business Council of Canada, John Manley's group, and their survey data, which we read quite closely, what we're seeing is that yes, we need to have STEM, but we need those STEM students to understand the arts and social sciences, and we need the arts and social sciences to understand STEM. Finding ways to have interactive collaboration in that regard is going to be really important.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

That's good.

In the short time I have, I want to thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. I look forward to working with you in the future too. Thank you.