Industry Committee on April 14th, 2016

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Pass my private member's bill and we'll have even more.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much. You're just under the wire.

Mr. Arseneault, you have three minutes.

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

Minister Bains, since I only have three minutes, I am going to try to ask you two questions at the same time.

Canada is a large and wonderful country, but the fact of being large implies that there are lots of rural regions a long way from major centres. I come from New Brunswick, one of the Atlantic provinces, so I know something about that.

How does your department go about monitoring and providing assistance and support to businesses operating in remote regions—in fact, they are the lungs of those so-called remote regions—particularly in the Atlantic provinces?

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

Thank you for your question. I am also going to answer it in English.

I'm glad you raised this question, because this is where the regional development agencies come into play.

ACOA is a very important platform for us to make those investments for diversification, particularly in rural and remote regions where there is very little or limited interface with the federal government. ACOA is the face of the federal government in those regions. That is why I very much support this regional development agency. It has a tremendous track record of making key investments to help communities transition when they get into difficult times, particularly in some of the challenges around seasonal workers.

We have different initiatives in ACOA to help businesses, from enterprise development to community development. We focus a lot on business development initiatives. The idea is that we work on small projects and also large projects, because we are focusing on helping these companies grow. We make the investment. If they need that bridge financing, if they need to be able to get to the next hurdle and BDC is not there, or if there is just a window of opportunity where we can make that investment, we will do that. We really work closely with the community. We work closely with our clients. We really have a good on-the-ground presence in these rural and remote regions.

The other area that I would like to quickly touch upon with respect to making investments in Atlantic Canada in rural and remote regions within that area and across Canada is the $500-billion commitment that we made to broadband. This commitment speaks clearly to the fact that we want to make sure that we deal with the digital divide that currently exists in society, where you have this challenge in rural and remote regions where they cannot access the Internet. That has a tremendous impact on young people and their ability to get good-quality education. As Minister Chagger mentioned, it impacts small businesses. It has a profound impact on individuals to be able to reach their potential and have the opportunity to succeed. That investment is absolutely critical as well.

So we have ACOA and we have broadband. They are two examples of how we are investing in rural and remote regions in Atlantic Canada.

Most recently we made announcements on the connecting Canadians program. This initiative is about investing in direct Internet connectivity to homes. The idea is that we will try to connect 300,000 homes by the end of the program. I think we're very close to hitting that target, if not already exceeding it. Again, it's focusing on the digital divide that's taking place. This ICT adoption, this connectivity to the Internet and accessibility, making sure it's reliable, is absolutely critical in rural and remote regions, particularly in Atlantic Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We have three more questions. We'll go to Ms. Gladu for three minutes, then we'll go back to Mr. Jowhari for three minutes, and Mr. Masse can take the last three minutes.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It was great to see that the knowledge infrastructure fund our government brought in was continued as the post-secondary infrastructure fund. Lambton College in my riding happens to be having a bio-renewable energy clean-tech lab upgrade going on, so I was looking at the requirements for the deadline of May 9. It seems that if you're going to spend $2 billion, you should maybe allow more than 48 days for people to get their requirements in, because the requirements include engineering drawings, which I can tell you are not always instantly developed.

Is there already a list of people who had a project ready to go on the ground, or is the engineering drawing not really such a requirement?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you for the question.

I do want to start by saying there is a difference between the KIP program and this new post-secondary institution strategic investment fund. One of the major differences is that this fund now includes environmental sustainability and KIP didn't. As well, there was the investment under KIP, but the difference, and you heard this across the research community, was that, yes, you invested in buildings but there was no investment in the researchers. That's why you see this time the $2-billion investment in infrastructure plus the $95 million in the researchers themselves.

The reason for the tight timeline is so that we take advantage of the summer construction season, and we get that economic development and jobs. If you go to the website, you'll see what the requirements are. What I can tell you is how they will be judged. Once we get in all the submissions, again due May 9, they will be reviewed by department officials along the criteria of merit, readiness, and support by provinces and territories.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

That's excellent.

On the chief science officer position, how much money do you believe will be required for that and what resources will be given to support it?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you for the question. As you know, this is a top priority of mine, and it's in the mandate letter to create it.

I explained earlier that we've received 74 submissions from across the country. We've reached out to all parliamentarians in the House of Commons and the Senate. That's never happened while I've been here. We talked to people internationally for best practices.

We are at the analysis phase, and I don't take that term lightly. This is the ministry of science. It should have a real analysis. When we go forward with reaching out to Canadians to advertise the position, that's when we'll announce that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Jowhari, you have three minutes.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This question goes to Ms. Chagger.

Quickly, I want to talk about scale-ups for high-impact firms. I have four questions. What characterizes a firm that is considered to be a high-impact firm? What qualifications do they need to qualify for the funding? What is the amount of funding? Are there any deadlines associated with it?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

I will say that what makes it high impact is basically what it is able to do. We're looking at management, at the potential, and at everything it has to offer. We're looking at the overall package.

As to where it can go, we recognize that the nation has potential. This budget is making a commitment to work with high-impact firms to scale up. As Minister Bains mentioned earlier, a point that I've been raising and that I've been hearing often is that we are not able to scale our companies. That's a challenge we're trying to take on. We're looking at solutions for that within the community as well. Any feedback is welcome.

We are going to do it right, so when it comes to a deadline, no, there isn't one. It will be part of the innovation agenda. That's a role that the innovation agenda plays. The feedback we've been gaining has been very valuable. I still welcome any feedback.

Do you have another question or can I make a point that I want to make?

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Go ahead and make your point.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Earlier on, I didn't get to finish a point that I think is really important to know for everyone in this room and for anybody who is watching from home. When it comes to loans, grants, and opportunities for entrepreneurs, especially under-represented groups, we do have the Canada small business financing program, which has seen some great successes. We do have the BDC, the Business Development Bank. It's a development bank that is actually committed entirely to small businesses. It actually works fairly well.

The fact that we are coming under one portfolio, one department, I think will be beneficial to the nation, as there is strength within that bank. The BDC filled a gap, and it's a gap that still needs filling. That's the good feedback that we're getting.

I just wanted to make sure for the people who are listening and the people who are here...we share those resources as well with them, because it is a great way to get in and get that idea to grow.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

On potential joint work between the EDC and the BDC to further strengthen our trade, is there anything you want to expand on there?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

That's an excellent question.

Having all these different programs and departments coming under one department is what's going to allow them to work together. Up until now they've been working in silos because they haven't had to communicate. Now they have to communicate. They have to collaborate. They have to work together. The success of this nation will actually be where competition meets collaboration. That is the secret to success. By bringing us all together under one department, that's where you'll see the EDC and the BDC working closely with the RDAs and the programs that exist.

I believe that we'll see some great successes moving forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Masse, you can take us home for three minutes.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker...oh, I mean “Mr. Chair”. But maybe that's in the future.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

I'm certainly getting a lot of practice.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

You can get a promotion from me, but I don't know what good it's going to do you.

I won't end on the BDC. I'd rather not.

I would like to turn it over to the ministers, though. One of the things that I don't think happens enough here is that you get a chance to mention what's important to you in your riding. You're parliamentarians first and ministers second, in my opinion, because this is the way the system works here. I would turn it over to you to hear what's important to you in your ridings.

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

Wow, that's a very nice and thoughtful question. For me personally, my riding represents a very unique intersection with transportation, because there is Toronto Pearson International Airport and the 400 series of major highways, so there are a lot of infrastructure issues. That's a huge priority for us. There is a lot of gridlock in that area. To go from one end to the other end of my riding in a very dense and limited area takes up to 25 minutes. It's completely unacceptable relative to it's small size. Infrastructure is a big challenge, and I work very closely with my local mayor to deal with and address it. I was really glad it was mentioned in the budget.

The food and beverage industry is another priority. It is a major employer in my neck of the woods. It's an area where there is a lot of innovation taking place. I didn't have an opportunity to speak about it, but as I said before, we think of innovation through the ICT lens or, traditionally, through clean tech, but a lot of innovation is taking place in agriculture, mining, and forestry. This is an area that I'm very passionate about, and I'm looking forward to promoting the innovation agenda in that sector, because there are tremendous growth opportunities, not only for my riding but for Canadians from coast to coast.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you for a lovely question.

I get to represent the riding where I was born and raised. We're one of the most diverse ridings in the country and I'm so proud of that. You can literally travel the world within my riding. We have a large majority of newcomers and first generation Canadians.

One of the challenges is for our kids to obtain post-secondary education. They're smart and they're good at school, but sometimes they don't have those chances. Once they graduate, the challenge is to make sure they get the jobs. In our riding it's about jobs. Our families work so hard, so we need to support them. They have come to Canada to build a better life for their children.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

When I was talking about them all coming under one department, I should have said, “coming under the whole-of-government approach”. EDC is under Global Affairs Canada, and that's where that collaborative approach is taking place so that we can serve the best interests of Canadians.

I come from the riding of Waterloo. The Waterloo region has a great ecosystem that I think is definitely something the rest of the nation can learn from and see. We have a lot of learning to do as well. That's where working together as a nation is allowing us to continue to grow, and allowing other communities to grow and prosper as well.

I have two universities and a college within my riding. This is an area that has been close to my heart. I believe the best natural renewable resource is the brain. It is the human capital that we have in this nation. It is a matter of working with that talent, providing jobs for that talent, and ensuring that talent is not leaving our nation.