Evidence of meeting #23 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 vote.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
This is wonderful.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Beautiful.
I have a couple of questions. First, you have about 330 employees worldwide.
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
We have 350.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Of those, about 135 to 140 are in Canada?
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
No, about 250-plus are in Canada.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
One of the things I've been trying to find out from employers is this. If you could change any policy in the Government of Canada, the number one thing that affects you, what would it be?
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
It would be the immigration policy that I talked about, so that I'd be able to hire who I want, when I want—the best in the world. I'd change that one.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Okay.
Is there an adverse effect for your business from any of the proposed tax changes, whether it's payroll taxes or carbon taxes, or does it not really have a massive effect on you?
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
I wouldn't put those on a priority list of what would have a significant impact on us.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
No. Our opportunities to grow our business are with respect to how much effort we put into international market development. The more I can put resources toward doing that, the bigger we will grow our base and the more value-added products we'll export from Canada.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
I'm just trying to think about how to frame the question.
Over the next two to three years, where do you see your brightest spots in terms of growing the number of employees in Canada?
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
In Canada, it would be on our biostimulants business. Most of these operations are in Nova Scotia. They would involve the manufacturing location that we have. It's a 115,000-square-foot facility. We have a 15,000-square-foot R and D facility. Also, our head office is located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where we have 70 people. These three bases will grow more than anything else in our organization.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
For the expansion of the facility or the creation of the facility, I believe two and a half years ago now, you made about a $6-million investment?
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
That's the Cornwallis facility. It is that 115,000-square-foot facility, yes.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Okay. Wonderful.
I understand the federal government came to the table with some dollars. Were those repayable loans or were those grants?
4:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
We have used, in the past, funds from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. We have used funds from the provincial government and all of those types of funds. We have used funds from the R and D point of view from IRAP, the SR and ED program, and so on and so forth. For every single one of those funding types of programs, whatever the conditions were, we've honoured them and paid the money back, if necessary.
What they've allowed us to do is to grow our business bigger. We would still be a successful company without any of that funding, but we would be a lot smaller than what we are today.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
I guess where I was going with this is, from your point of view, what is the best approach? Is it repayable loans? Is it straight-out grants, as how SR and ED and IRAP would do it? To you as an end user, what is the best approach for government to take?
4:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
It depends which type of program you're looking at.
For example, on a capital program, a conditionally repayable loan works out very well. On higher-risk R and D, particularly IRAP's program is geared towards that. They want to be way out there in terms of leading-edge research and development. That tends to be more of a grant, because that's the sphere they play with.
You have to look at what you are doing. When we're doing a capital expansion, one of the things that was absolutely excellent about ACOA was they provided repayable loans, but they don't take in security, and because they don't do that, we can then go to our banks and provide them with the security, get three-quarters of the financing from them, and then finish it off with ACOA-type money, which has been very useful for our growth in the past.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
If you don't have the operational need, you don't need the capital expansion.
4:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
I'm sorry?
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
If you don't have the operational need to expand, you don't need the capital expansion itself.
4:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Acadian Seaplants Limited
That is a correct statement.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
