Industry Committee on May 18th, 2017

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome, Minister.

In the interests of time I'm going to ask two questions. One of them naturally has to do with the innovation agenda and Innovation Canada. The other one has to do with the skills fund, two major pillars of the 2017 budget.

On the preamble side, in my riding, Richmond Hill, what I have started in collaboration with other levels of government and the board of trade is an innovation task force. The objective of the innovation task force in my community is to identify companies and young entrepreneurs specifically in the area of artificial intelligence and robotics to benefit from the innovation agenda and the Innovation Canada platform to be able to get funding so they can get into early-stage as well as late-stage development.

Can you shed some light on how, after the identification of these opportunities, they can get access to the funds under the Innovation Canada program?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

As you know, you identify two areas where there's a lot of growth potential and expertise in Canada, artificial intelligence. We have the pioneers who really played a meaningful role in machine learning, Geoffrey Hinton, in Toronto, and Yoshua Bengio, in Montreal. This is an area where Canada has global expertise, and that's why we invested $125 million for a pan-Canadian artificial intelligence initiative in our budget.

You also mentioned robotics. We talked about the Canadian Space Agency, the Canadarm. We have a very strong reputation globally as well when it comes to robotics, so advanced manufacturing is an area that we also highlighted in our budget.

These are key themes that are reflected as priorities for the government, and I know that you're working very closely with companies in your constituency. You are meeting with them, aligning them with some of the key priorities in the budget and determining where those opportunities exist, and I want to commend you for that, particularly with your goal and ambition to scale them up. That is a priority for our government.

We're really good at starting up companies in Canada. We're a start-up nation. It's a point of pride. But we do not want to be a nation where other countries or other companies come and take these businesses abroad. We want to see some of these companies, if they choose to stay in Canada, have the ability to really scale up and grow in Canada and be strong global brands, and that's why Innovation Canada exists. The idea is for you to identify those companies and then they would engage. As I said, it's a single window, and they would have access to all innovation-related programs within government, so rather than going to multiple departments, rather than trying to figure out what to do.... Because remember, these companies are growing and scaling up. They're not trying to figure out government and trying to determine how to navigate through all the programs and opportunities that exist for them, so we're simplifying the process. We're coordinating the process and we have a single window for them.

One of the key elements in that single window is the strategic investment fund, and that's open to large corporations, as we talked about in the automotive sector, for example, but it's also open to companies that really have growth potential as well, and that's an area we are going to be focusing on with them as well.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Let's go to the skills plan, $2.7 billion over six years. I have a lot of constituents coming to me saying, kudos, the government is doing a great job. How can I get access to those funds, and how can I get the new learning, the new skills set that's needed? How do I go about it?

Can you shed some light on that one?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

As you know, Minister Hajdu is really the point person on deploying some of those programs, particularly for those mid-career workers who want to leave their jobs or reduce the number of hours of work so they can go back to school. We're going to be providing them with grants, interest-free loans. Those are the tools that exist right now and that she'll be playing a leadership role in.

One of the areas we're really excited about is coding, as I mentioned before. We want to respect provincial jurisdiction. We're going to put money forward through not-for-profit organizations to provide the supply for coding-related programs. The demand does exist within our school systems, and they have the ability then to deal with those organizations and get those kinds of coding initiatives within their schools, without getting into that jurisdictional issue as well.

We have different programs in place. Those programs were announced in the budget and we'll be rolling them out. Again, this information will be available on the website as well, and the objective is to be as friendly as possible to citizens and our constituents so they can navigate these programs in a timely manner and get the answer very quickly, and also get the money they need so they can upgrade their skills.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We'll move to Mr. Albas. You have five minutes.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister and deputy minister, we appreciate your presence here today. Mr. Minister, about 40 or so days ago the Prime Minister announced support to Ford of Canada to create and maintain almost 800 jobs for Canadian workers. That was through the innovation fund and you mentioned it in your comments today. Yesterday Mike Moran, who is the spokesperson for Ford in the United States, went on the record to say that 600 Canadian jobs would be phased out. Is that frustrating to you, Minister, that you put in place programming only to find out that it has changed within a very short period of time?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

That's a really good question. You mentioned Ford and, as I said, I started my career at Ford so I'm familiar with the company and the sector. Ford generally and the automotive sector in general are seeing really incredible sales numbers, but it's a very cyclical industry, it's a very cyclical sector. They have ups and downs in terms of sales and products, in terms of what they're seeing here within the North American footprint and globally as well. I think some of these transitions reflect the cyclical nature of the industry and also the investments that they're making globally as well. Clearly, we want to see more investment opportunity in Canada and we'll work with the company to continue to see additional investment opportunities going forward.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

When you first made the innovation announcement—obviously there was work that went in ahead of time—was there any discussion about this planned scaling back of 600 Canadian jobs?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Our focus was to secure the footprint for the Essex engine plant. This was part of the labour discussion that took place with the automotive Big Three, and we wanted to be a meaningful partner along with the Province of Ontario and with the unions. In those conversations we did discuss also a focus not only on the Essex engine plant jobs through Ford, for example, but the connectivity centre here in Ottawa. As I mentioned, GM is hiring up to 1,000 engineers in Canada to build the car of the future. So we had a twofold objective: one was to secure jobs and to secure the manufacturing footprint, because as you know there's a multiplier of seven, and we also wanted to focus on the technological side, the connectivity centre and the autonomous vehicle nature.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I can understand that, but I'm talking specifically about investments in Ford and then also the declaration by Ford yesterday. Minister, the challenge I have here is that obviously you say you want to be a meaningful partner with Ford, and you've also said they did not make you aware that they were planning on phasing out 600 jobs, meanwhile you were having those meaningful conversations.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Again, some of these jobs may be phased out. My understanding is these are not jobs in the front-end of the shop, some of these are administrative positions. At the same time, they're making additional investments to focus on engineers and software, so I think there's a shift in the automotive sector of their footprint. Those are the conversations we have with them, to say what kind of good quality jobs we can have, and at the same time when we make these investment opportunities we really focus on securing a mandate. For the Ford Motor Company to let—

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

But for you to sit down with them, Minister, and to not be told “We are planning on cutting back 600 jobs and we're going to announce that within a month after this has gone forward”, to me, is not a meaningful discussion. Did you not ask them, or did they simply not tell you?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Again, as you rightfully mentioned earlier in your remarks, it's not only Canada. This is Mexico; this is the U.S. This is a North American, and potentially even a global, restructuring process that they're going through.

When we sat down with them, we secured a strong footprint within Canada for the Ford Motor Company, a strong baseline of jobs, and we also made sure that they will continue to invest in the R and D side of it. That's what the 800 new jobs that were created are attributed to.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Again, Minister, you're looking at only the positive side. I would just say as a parliamentarian that I hope you'd be looking at both ends of it, protecting jobs and asking those critical questions. You're giving taxpayer monies to a company, and taxpayers would want to know that this interest is being maintained in a greater context than just a one-off deal.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Correct.

Also, you have to realize that this is the new norm in terms of how we compete with Mexico and the U.S. The government partnership is part of the equation. If government is not at the table making these investments and being a partner, we will lose these opportunities to Mexico and to southern parts of the U.S. We saw that in the past. In the past decade or so, we saw a lot of these investments go down south to Mexico. That's why we changed the profile to a grant model and started bringing these investments back to Canada.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

However, again, Minister—

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Sorry, but your time is up. Thank you very much.

Mr. Baylis, you have five minutes.

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

Thank you, Minister Bains, for being here.

As you know, in my riding and across Quebec and Ontario we have had a lot of flooding. The federal government presently has the disaster financial assistance arrangements program that helps people after a flood. That flows through the Quebec government. Our government has also announced the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund, which is not just to come in and help after a disaster but to help mitigate it.

The third leg of that is technology, specifically clean technologies. We can use that to slow down these disasters, and also use our know-how to better prevent them. Could you explain how the clean technology fund that you're putting in place can do that?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

You make a very valid point. When it comes to clean tech, obviously we want to achieve our climate change targets. We recognize that we have these ambitious targets to reduce our carbon footprint within Canada. It's part of our responsibility as Canadians, and it's our global responsibility to show leadership in that area.

Mitigation is a key part as well. We're dealing with disasters. We need to make sure that when we think of clean tech, it's an area where we can also play a leadership role.

There are companies in Canada that are now more encouraged and more emboldened to look at mitigation technologies and solutions, and they feel assured that the government is there—

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

It's there as a partner.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

—to work with them as a partner.

As I mentioned, clean technology is a priority area for us. As I mentioned, we have $1.8 billion of financing available. Above and beyond that, we have $400 million for the venture capital catalyst initiative, so it's actually more than $1.8 billion.

I think the fact that companies realize our commitment to climate change, to mitigation, and that we have the financial resources and programs in place will really encourage companies in Canada, around the mitigation area, to develop their solutions to help us deal with some of these disasters.

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

Excellent.

With regard to Innovation Canada, I am very pleased to see that our government will be setting up a single-window service to bring together all government innovation programs that support companies. This single-window service will be fully bilingual, in English and in French.

I am very excited about Innovation Canada because it shows the government itself being innovative in the way it will deliver that service to our entrepreneurs. We're not just asking them to be innovative, we ourselves are being innovative.

Can you explain how you see Innovation Canada making life easier for our entrepreneurs?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

As I mentioned, I'm an accountant, but I also did my M.B.A., so I have a business background. I know you yourself are a very successful business person and entrepreneur and you know that customer service is so important. You know that we have to think that way. These are our constituents. We have to really afford them the best possible experience when they're dealing with government.

We really are building in a customer service mentality at Innovation Canada. It's obviously coordinating programs and simplifying programs, but it's also proactively dealing with businesses out there, better understanding their needs, and being able to work with them in a coordinated fashion.

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

You're trying to be easy to do business with.