Industry Committee on March 10th, 2016

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of parliamentary privilege. You have to recognize that point when I put it on the floor.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Actually, we are going to move to the next one.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Are you saying that you're not recognizing my point of parliamentary privilege? Yes? Is that correct?

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

We are going to move on to the next question.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

You're not going to recognize my point of parliamentary privilege?

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I think I have the floor right now, so when you get your turn—

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

I don't know what your point is.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

We actually have the right to ask questions, put motions on the floor, and speak without being interrupted for two out of the five-minute rounds. I'm not being rude. I'm not being—

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

That's right, and you'll be given a turn.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Excuse me. Mr. Nuttall, we've already—

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

I was interrupted for a very long period of time, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

No. Listen, we've already decided from our first meeting that all future business is to go subcommittee, okay? You can keep trying to do this and we will keep doing the same thing.

We are going to move on to our next question.

Mr. Baylis.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Are you denying my parliamentary privilege?

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I think I have the floor.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

We have witnesses here.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Just answer the question—

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

We have witnesses here.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

I will take it that if you're not going to recognize it, then you're denying it, and we can deal with it in other ways. That's perfect. Thank you.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Dan, stop talking to him. You don't have to talk to him. It's my floor. You don't have to talk to him.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Mr. Baylis.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

First of all, I would like to apologize to our guests and explain something. We have tried to put a structure in place. We think that what we've done is quite reasonable. If anybody has any new business, they can submit it in a motion, 48 hours in advance, and then we would look at it.

Clearly, not everybody thinks that's a reasonable way to progress, so unfortunately we have these outbursts, but I think we're trying to be reasonable. That's what you're seeing. Unfortunately, you're a slight victim of that.

In coming back to the business at hand, you had this “Strengthening Canada's Cultures of Innovation” report. I found that quite interesting. I know that we talked about pipelines as one area, but I won't belabour that point. If I understood it correctly, point 3 was trying to move “human thought and behaviour” towards innovation.

You gave the example of the pipeline, and I don't want to belabour that point, but where people might have negative views that impact our ability to do something, even though it's not based on science.... Can you expand on that third point? I'd like to know about that.

[Dr. Ted Hewitt]

First of all, let me say that we are here to serve the people of Canada and the Parliament of Canada, period.

On the other side of the innovation equation, one of the examples I like to give is the new technology that's developed for communication devices, smart phones, and so forth. Think about what this essentially is.

For example, I have an iPhone here. It's a very sophisticated piece of technology, but as soon as I open it up—and this is where I'm going to show you where the human element and the social sciences and humanities come in—what am I going to do?

First of all, I'm impressed by the design. It's the design that makes this such an attractive device. That design was undertaken by people who work in this field—whether they are not architects but designers, industrial designers—our discipline.

Secondly, I'm going to check my email communication. I'm going to deal with other human beings in the course of the day. I'm going to figure out what I need to do from work. I'm going to see if my family needs my help.

Thirdly, I might read a book, or I might watch a movie, or I might look at the CBC news, or the CTV news, or whatever.

That's just to say that all of those things that I will do through this piece of technology, and all the design that was undertaken to make this piece of technology sing, came from people who were trained in our disciplines, building on the highly trained, highly skilled folks in science and engineering who built it.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I'm an engineer, and I know engineers go and design something without getting the right people.

[Dr. Ted Hewitt]

My colleague as well, and she works for us.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

There are a few of us engineers on this side here.