Industry Committee on April 12th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

You have about 20 seconds left.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Okay. This should be a quick answer.

What is the number of people who are neither enrolled nor looking for jobs in the country right now, people that are not working, not enrolled? Do you have a number for that?

[Wayne Smith]

We have it. I don't have it with me, but I'd be happy to provide it.

We can tell you for various age groups how many people are not in employment or not in education or training.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Is that a published number?

[Wayne Smith]

It's a number that you can calculate from published sources. It is available.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Could you forward that to the clerk? Then we could distribute it.

Thank you very much.

We will go now to Mr. Arseneault.

You have four minutes.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I have time left, I will share it with my colleague, Mr. Jowhari.

Gentlemen, madam, thank you for being here.

I have learned a great deal in this meeting. This fourth industrial revolution will be the fastest and most powerful in the history of the modern industrial world. That is fascinating. There is also the fact that Canada will have to try to seize every opportunity and take advantage of every possibility in order to be able to ensure its development.

I gathered that there is collaboration among postsecondary institutions, colleges, polytechnical schools and universities.

Given what can be taught in our postsecondary institutions and what that industrial revolution will bring with it, do you see any areas of expertise where Canada may be behind the rest of the world?

Perhaps Mr. Pinto could answer.

[Dr. B. Mario Pinto]

You know, I think bringing together different partners will automatically give us strength. You'll find that universities now have joint programs with colleges and polytechnics, trying to cover the bases, to make sure that Canada will have an edge, to fill those gaps.

Are there areas where Canada is not able to compete effectively? It's difficult, having seen everything we fund on a competitive basis, to imagine that we would be left out. If you ask whether we can be number one in the world, or be in the top five in the world, or the top 10, I think that would be a different question. I don't think we will be left out in any areas if we're very smart about exploiting the synergies between the different institutions we have. We have tremendous talent in Canada. It's up to us, I think, to convene those partners in the most intelligent way and to interrogate very effectively on whether we are bringing together the correct expertise.

Having sat back and looked at everything we fund, I think we're very strong in different sectors. Could we be number one? If I were honest, perhaps we could in quantum technologies. In cybersecurity could we be number one in the world? Yes. But with the others, I would have to qualify.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

In my constituency, if we compare the number of university students with the number of college students, for example, we can see a shortfall on the technical side compared to the professional side.

With this industrial revolution, are we going to have a shortage of technicians or people trained in colleges and polytechnics rather than in universities?

I say that because I am surrounded by engineers and it is tiring me out.

[Voices]

Ha, ha!

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

You have one minute to answer.

[Dr. B. Mario Pinto]

I think we have to train very broadly in terms of skill sets. I think you have to train people in creative and critical thought, number one. There's no doubt that we have to teach people skills. It's that collective experience that will lead to an effective workforce for Canada and lead to an innovative workforce, a productive workforce. But to choose, a priori, emphasis on one sector and not the other, without all the data from Statistics Canada, for example, it would be very, very difficult for me to make that judgment call at the moment.

What I have seen from my personal experience is that the collective experience, brought together from different sectors, is the magic combination.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We're going to Mr. Dreeshen for three minutes.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I would like to come back to some of the things that were discussed regarding NSERC earlier. You talked about advanced oil and gas exploration recovery, all the types of things that are involved there. This is probably a good time to talk about the world-class regulations that we have. The rest of the world looks at what we do. I think that becomes an important aspect of it. You have the studies. You know what is taking place. It is so important that we recognize the excellence that is here in so many ways.

We also have to understand the reasons why sometimes our oil and gas industry seems to be demonized. As Canadians, it seems as though we apologize for everything, and we don't recognize that there has to be a certain amount aggressiveness when it comes to telling the story of our oil and gas industry. It's very important that we deal with that. Could you give us a bit of an outline as to some of the things that you have been able to do as you have partnered with the oil and gas industry?

[Dr. B. Mario Pinto]

Absolutely. You know we've had some very lucrative strategic partnerships in that area.

As you correctly point out, the regulatory aspects are fantastic, but so are the technological advances; the use of microbes, for example, to treat waste resulting from the oil sands; the use of a fungus, for example, to convert the residue from oil sands processing into valuable organics. There is value added, right? I think we have to talk about those things. We have to celebrate those successes. Those are made-in-Canada inventions and innovations. I think we're reticent to boast, as you correctly pointed out. I think we have to do a much better job of doing that.

We have similar technologies in the mining industry which again we should celebrate. From NSERC's point of view, many of us have featured those stories and anecdotes on our websites, and we celebrate those successes. Now I realize that “data” is not the plural of “anecdote”, but it certainly is a good start. We are doing our part to celebrate all of our successes without prejudice, without bias.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you very much, I appreciate that. I'll leave it at that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you.

We're going to Mr. Longfield for three minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I'll be splitting my time with Mr. Baylis. I have a very brief question for Dr. Pinto.

I've been very fortunate to direct some of the manufacturers in my area to use NSERC engage grants. It's a great tool with a fast response. They've got good solutions from engage. I haven't had the same success getting them to the college network. The college network is really an equal network in supplying solutions to manufacturers in particular. Could you comment on how the NSERC engage program works within both colleges and universities, and how it could be promoted differently?

[Dr. B. Mario Pinto]

Certainly. We have parallel programs with respect to the engage program through the college community innovation fund and also through the university system. They should work in parallel. I don't see any obvious reason why there would be blocks. There may be cultural differences, but other than that, I don't see any big impediments. I can certainly look into that, though, and get back to you.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

If you could help with our promotion, that would be great for our innovation network.

[Dr. B. Mario Pinto]

Certainly.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you very much.

I'll turn it over to Mr. Baylis.

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

I have a quick question on the centres of excellence. I'd like to know how many there are. Is there more money for them in the budget? Have you identified the ones that are working and those that are not working? Have you stratified them?

[Dr. B. Mario Pinto]

First of all, all our centres are reviewed externally periodically every five years. We look very critically at the impacts and outcomes.

We have a variety of programs: the networks of centres of excellence, the business-led networks of centres of excellence, and the centres of excellence in commercialization and research. They are at different points of maturity along the innovation pipeline. We demand very different things of those three network programs.

The programs are evaluated very rigorously and they don't get a 15-year run automatically. They're reviewed at the five-year mark and they may or may not get an extension for the next five years. It's a very rigorous review with international panels. We take those evaluations very seriously.

It's not an automatic licence to continue operation. As was pointed out, AUTO21 had a very successful 15-year run, but that was dependent on performance at all of the reviews.

We do our best to ask the critical questions. I emphasize that the questions are different depending on whether it's the centre of excellence in commercialization and research or a network of centre of excellence, which is more at the front end of the innovation ecosystem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Masse.