Evidence of meeting #30 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 procurement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector, Department of Industry
The programs that we have are focused on a number of sectors.
We have an automotive innovation fund—
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector, Department of Industry
That's right. It works in Ontario effectively, but not only Ontario.
We have another program that deals with aerospace companies, the SADI program. We also have a broad portfolio, as I mentioned earlier. The regional development agencies, which have significant programming to support SMEs, are also part of the portfolio. They have about $1 billion in annual spending that they provide across the country.
In addition, we have the National Research Council, which, as you know, has centres across the country and runs a program called IRAP, which provides support, again, to small and medium-sized companies and supports mentorship programs.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector, Department of Industry
The problem is that—
5:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector, Department of Industry
The answer to that question—
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
When I map it, they don't line up there. They line up at different stages. That's why we see, either when they weaken in growth or when they're dipping, that unfortunately none of those incentive programs are available during that dip.
5:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector, Department of Industry
I don't disagree, and that has been a policy challenge that has been identified. I can tell you that in that valley of death you also have many firms that.... They call it “valley of death” for two reasons: one is because they can't get money, and the second is that many firms never make it out of that valley.
5:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector, Department of Industry
I don't have a week that goes by when we don't have at least one or two companies that come in and say that they're in that valley of death—that they've benefited from IRAP, they've had some BDC funding, they maybe had mentorship from other parts of the public service, and now they're at a position where they need significant resources. I don't dispute that we don't have an easy answer for them. In certain sectors we do, but in other ones that we don't—
5:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector, Department of Industry
It comes down to risk tolerance.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Thank you.
Thank you very much to our witnesses for coming in today. It was very informative.
Thank you, everybody.
Just before I suspend, I want to remind everybody that on Monday it's full committee business. We'll be discussing our future business and what we're going to be doing.
The meeting is adjourned.