Evidence of meeting #164 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 well.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
All that information you mention and the list of the third parties.
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
I would be more than glad to make the business plans available.
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
Superclusters have put forward their business plans, and all that will be made publicly available.
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
The reason I have concern about that, Minister, is that it's a significant allegation, really, of 100,000 jobs being created. The problem is that we don't have any of that information and data.
I'll shift to where I'm going with this, which is with regard to Crown copyright. Again, we have an example where we have a minister of the Crown coming here, making—I guess—an argument about the creation of jobs from materials, but we have no access to any of that information.
In 2017, over 2,000 Canadians independently called for the elimination of Crown copyright. During our copyright submissions here, there were over 200 organizations that called for the elimination of Crown copyright. For more than four decades, there have been Parliaments—in 1981, 1985, 1993 as well another Parliament—calling for the abolishment of Crown copyright.
There have been continued delays of public information and Crown materials with the transition to the digital platforms that have taken place, and in fact, we're losing not only that information but our heritage, because some of this material is being destroyed. This feeds our democratic deficit and economic disadvantage, because the U.S. does not have Crown copyright.
We do have a report coming forth. Your government decided to go ahead with an order in council for Matty Moroun, a private American billionaire, to provide a new border crossing in my riding, without any stipulations to the local community and without any type of public input or even involvement.
Will you commit to moving on Crown copyright in any form necessary to abolish this procedure that's blocking Canadian innovation, access to information and democracy? The reason I point it out in your materials that you submitted here today is because there is valuable information that could be helpful. I'm not saying your business plan was not effective. However, none of that is available. Will you, then, do what's necessary? I have Bill C-440 and you can steal it. It has been done before in the past. Will you commit to abolishing Crown copyright before the next election?
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
Thank you for your intervention and your passion on this issue.
You and I have talked about this on several occasions when you proposed the bill. We talked about it in the House of Commons and in the lobby as well.
You also mentioned in your remarks that there is a study that the committee is doing. I highlighted that as well, and the Copyright Act and the proposed changes as well, so I'm not going to prejudge the outcome of the work that your committee is doing. I look forward to the recommendations that you put forward, and I look forward to acting on those recommendations. I'm also aware that the heritage committee is also looking at copyright-related issues, so I'll work very closely with my colleague Minister Rodriguez as well to see what appropriate steps we can take to address some of the issues you've highlighted.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
I'll leave this for you. You used it for a private American billionaire to provide him a new bridge. I'm hoping that you can actually look at the government tools available for abolishing Crown copyright, because our time is winding down here in Parliament.
Can I move to automotive, then, Mr. Minister?
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
In some good questions, Mr. Oliver noted that in fact we've seen our footprint shrink over North America with regard to production and output. Mr. DesRosiers had that in a recent article. However, in a quick recap, we looked at General Motors with $300 million in a plant in Orion Township, close to Windsor, Ontario, close to me; $1.8 billion in six U.S. manufacturing states and theatres; $1.4 billion announced again additionally on top of that. They also talk about 20 new all-electric vehicles globally by 2023 with none of them planned in Canada right now, so zero out of 20 planned for Canada. They have an investment in Brazil of $2.7 billion, and they've expanded that from the previous investment, so it caps at about $4 billion put in.
The reason I ask is that Fiat Chrysler announced $4.5 billion in investment in Detroit, a few kilometres away from the Windsor plant that is losing a third shift right now.
I wrote you back on February 27, 2019, and I'll provide you with a copy of that as well. I'll give you credit. Your ministry and your department has been very good at getting back to me over the last number of years, but you've yet to respond to this, and this is calling for a specific auto action team. I have support from the chamber, from the unions, from other auto suppliers and groups, to specifically go after that Detroit investment. Could you please respond to that now? I've been waiting since February 27, and since that time we've not only had the dust-up related to the Pacifica being left out for the incentive. I'm glad that's done; it's not the exact one I want, but thank you for at least listening and doing that. Most important is that we're losing a third shift.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
He hasn't given you any time to respond, but we'll give you a brief time.
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
Okay, I will be fairly brief.
Again, I come from an automotive background myself, so I fully appreciate the issues raised by my colleague. The Pacifica, as he mentioned, is part of the rebate program that we proposed in the budget, as well, to counter the cuts made by the Ontario government, which were hurting sales and production in Canada.
We have seen record investments in the automotive sector since 2015, over $6 billion. There have been certain challenges in certain communities. You talked about Oshawa. We recognize those challenges and we continue to work with the automotive suppliers and the automakers to see how we can bring additional investments to Canada.
As I highlighted in the House of Commons, Mr. Chair, in the first three years of our mandate, we've seen more than 11,500 net new jobs created in the automotive sector, full-time jobs, versus the previous Conservative government, which saw 20,000 jobs lost before the recession even hit. We're very proud of the fact that we've turned the corner when it comes to the automotive sector. We've seen additional investments. More can be done and more will be done. That's why the strategic innovation fund is very important to help provide that tool that we need to bring some of those investments.
NDP
Liberal
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Minister. Welcome to our committee.
In your opening remarks, there was an area that I am seeking your help to help Canadians demystify. You mentioned that there are economic strategy tables created. To average Canadians, if you ask them, “Do you know about the economic strategy tables?”, they're going to say, “Well, excuse me...what?” I understand this is one of the elements of the government's innovation platform. Could you help demystify this, and tell us what they are, what they focused are on and how they're addressing the challenges that the innovation group is facing?
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
One of the premises of how we develop policy is that we have to engage stakeholders and communities, and we have to engage Canadians as well. This is nothing new. When we developed the innovation and skills plan, we had a long, thought-out consultation process to really understand where the gaps were, what the challenges were and where the opportunities were. Similar to developing policies going forward, economic policies, we put forward economic strategy tables.
The six areas were digital, clean resources, clean tech, health and bioscience, advanced manufacturing and agriculture. The reason why these were selected was that industry played a leadership role in determining that this was where the growth opportunities are, this is where we can see the economy going forward, where Canada is well positioned to succeed internationally as well. These strategy tables were comprised of people from those different sectors from a variety of backgrounds: experts, people who run businesses, people who advise businesses and Canadians from a consumer perspective as well. We covered all different aspects and came forward with a bunch of recommendations in these strategy tables.
Many of those recommendations were implemented in the previous two budgets, particularly the last budget and the fall economic update. For example, there was the capital cost allowance issue where we made it easier for businesses to write off the capital cost allowance so that they can compete with investments that were being made in other jurisdictions.
Work-integrated learning was a big issue that was presented in our budget where the private sector is stepping up as well.
The global skills strategy is an immigration pilot project that has become permanent based on their recommendations, because they want Canada to attract not only great Canadian talent but global talent as well.
The objective of this economic strategy table is to develop policy ideas with industry, businesses, with people who understand the real issues on the ground, and work with them to come forward with solutions that can see growth in the economy. I highlighted in my remarks that we have seen over one million jobs created by Canadians in the economy, and we want to continue to create conditions for Canadians to succeed going forward. The economic strategy tables create conditions for success. I've just highlighted some of the policy proposals that they put forward.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Yes, thank you.
Can you help me understand how those six tables or industries were shortlisted from a broader list of industries?
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
We went out to industry, we engaged business and asked them where they saw the growth opportunities and which sectors, which areas, potentially represent opportunities for us, not only within Canada but internationally as well. It's very difficult to always land on one sector versus the other, but ultimately these specific tables really reflect the true diversity of our economy and where we had enormous export potential as well.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
How does that line up with the concept of the supercluster and the SIF program that we have?
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
There's a great deal of alignment. This is basically a new smart industrial policy where we are creating innovations skills plan, as I highlighted in my remarks. But if you look at the superclusters in the areas of growth, they are very consistent and very similar to the economic strategy tables. If you look at the strategic investment fund and the investments we've made they are very consistent with these areas of growth. Of course, this represents the growth that we have seen in the economy because our government policies and programs are well aligned with where we are seeing industry growing. We are really making smart investments to continue to see growth in the coming years.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Is it fair to say that we are almost creating a triangle between the industry tables, the superclusters and the SIF program? One develops a policy, the other one supports the industries on the ground, the leaders, and then the SIF is basically providing the right funding to the right organization.
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
I would say that's a very accurate description and they are all connected. Our policies and programs are well thought-out. They are well integrated. The idea is to avoid overlap but to complement one another and to create synergies and opportunities amongst different programs and initiatives so we can continue to see growth, and you articulated that very well.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
How does the SME fit into this? I understand the policy because they would be part of the consultation process, but how would they benefit from it? Over 95% of the businesses in Canada are small businesses—
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
In fact, 98% of businesses are small and medium-sized businesses. You're absolutely right that this is the backbone of our economy. The economic strategy tables had strong representation from small and medium-sized businesses. We had strong voices at the table to make sure that any proposals that came forward also benefited them as well—work-integrated learning, global skills in terms of the skills aspect of it, and agile regulations to look at how we can streamline the process for small businesses.
Liberal
Liberal
Navdeep Bains Liberal Mississauga—Malton, ON
We continue to engage and work with them. As you know, the innovation and skills plan is not a one-year initiative. It's not a one-program, one-set-up policy. It's a consistent, ongoing effort by our government to really grow the economy. We need to continue to engage industry. We need to continue to engage academia and particularly small and medium-sized businesses. They'll continue to remain engaged and provide us with feedback on how we can continue to improve conditions for businesses to succeed and seek growth in jobs created in the Canadian economy.