Evidence of meeting #21 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 companies.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada
We should work together more.
Vice-President, External Relations, Communitech
We're strategic partners, so we—
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada
I think what's needed for the whole ecosystem, including the stakeholders here today, is a mapping of the ecosystem at the various stages of entrepreneurial growth, on a local, provincial, and national level, so that every stakeholder knows what role they play and we can have awesome hand-offs, so that every door is the right door for entrepreneurs. I think that's the next evolution of this organic ecosystem.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
It's like you're all out there and bumping into each other and it's, “Hey, why don't you do this?” Or is it...?
Chief Executive Officer, Futurpreneur Canada
No. I think we're stitching together.... We're strategic partners. We work well.... We're not-for-profits. We work really, really hard. In an ideal world, we'd have weekly calls, and we don't have that, so we see that opportunity to strengthen the ties.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
It's about some way for us to help that more together.... It has grown. You've started something, and that's been great and that's been needed, but now we need some way of forming it all together.
Vice-President, External Relations, Communitech
There are some existing networks and examples that can be leveraged. Lloyd Longfield and I worked in the early days of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs, and I would say that it's come a long way in the last 10 years. It's a series of regional innovation centres that offer a common programming, and the core notion is what Victoria just mentioned, which is that there's no wrong door.
If I'm an entrepreneur and I need help, I should be able to ask the nearest organization or the nearest mentor for help. If that's not the right door, then it's the responsibility of those who run these organizations to make the warm hand-off.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
I'll come back to that, but before I do, I would like to ask you to possibly submit something in writing, as I've heard many times about issues with the temporary foreign workers. That was an open program. Previously, there were abuses in certain areas that were not even technical, and it was heavily clamped down on. People tend to think of that problem as only being in farming and that, but it's hurting our high-tech sector very badly.
I'd like to hear exactly what the problem is and what solution you perceive. You could put that in writing to us very succinctly. What's the problem? How is it hurting our high-tech companies? What should be the solution?
How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Coming back to this stitching together, you see an opportunity to somehow have it more cohesively done. Would that be the way...?
Chief Executive Officer, Futurpreneur Canada
It's part of the evolution, so it's happening. We're getting better at it every year.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Do you have venture capitalists stitched into your system?
Chief Executive Officer, Futurpreneur Canada
Yes, we do, and I think all of us, NACO and the others, are looking at how we formalize that. We now have the Hockeystick technology, made in Canada, for companies to describe themselves and pass them on—and NACO has the same thing. We're working at how we can make it really easy to facilitate the pathway of entrepreneurs. It's evolving, and it's getting better every year.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada
It could be expedited, though.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
It will be interesting with the foreign workers. I've toured a number of different video game organizations, and they can't get the key person—almost like the director of a movie—into Canada who would another 100 jobs. There seems to be a clear misunderstanding, and this is prior to the big events of the last number of years. They've had a hard time explaining this through the system, so it would be interesting to see if that's still there.
I'll turn this over for a final question.
What I guess I'm concerned about, when we're studying manufacturing, is the role of the banks. Quickly to our researchers, it would be helpful to have an analysis of some of the banks that do loan to small and medium-sized businesses. I think we should invite some of the banks to this committee as well. I think Mr. Lobb's analysis of the BDC being the last resort is a good one, so why don't we hear from them?
I don't see, at the end of the day, from our entrepreneurs a similar porthole of manufacturers in Canada. Many times we have university-developed patents and entrepreneurs who take those patents and look to business plans, and then we have the manufacturing done elsewhere.
I see some bright things. In Windsor, we have bicycles, for example. Ironically, the automotive industry was centred around Windsor and Detroit, historically, because of bicycle manufacturing, and now it's re-emerging.
I'll leave it at that. How do we improve product manufacturing development in Canada from ideas that entrepreneurs create?
Chief Executive Officer, Futurpreneur Canada
For me, it's telling the stories. I think you have a huge opportunity to tell the stories of people who are doing it, doing well, making money, and expanding.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Startup Canada
For me, it's all about makerspaces that are giving entrepreneurs a playground to make things and connect with the software developers to create smart technologies, which are ultimately the manufacturing sector of the future.
Vice-President, External Relations, Communitech
I would agree. This ecosystem model works in multiple industries. We need to step back and look at the pieces that are most applicable and create those playground spaces or makerspaces and encourage young entrepreneurs to try things, make things, break things, and test them. Those are the things that lead to new firms, and that's an opportunity for us.
