Industry Committee on May 25th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

We have a point of order on the floor.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

There's a speech going on versus a study, and the speech is including non-parliamentary language towards the Prime Minister. I would just caution on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

I will remind the members that we are to maintain parliamentary language and respect for all members in the House.

I will let Mr. Dreeshen continue.

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

Thank you.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

On that point of order, Madame Chair, I'm curious to know what the unparliamentary language was. A colleague was chastising my colleague for using his time as he saw fit. He made an accusation, and I kind of don't agree with it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

The comment that was unparliamentary was the cuckoo—

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That was the point, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I ask that members remain professional.

We will continue. I'll restart the clock at 3:15 remaining.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

But the cuckoo clock appearances in and out of Rideau Hall have been used in the media. I think he was just quoting. I could be mistaken, but I think it has been used in—

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Madam Chair, members of Parliament aren't using that language.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

We are now getting into debate. I have put out the comment. I'm asking MP Dreeshen to continue his questions. He has three minutes and 15 seconds.

Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

If the Prime Minister's feelings are hurt, then I take that back.

They fail to acknowledge the other Canadian resource opportunities and are slow to react to rail transportation issues. As the Council of Canadian Innovators has stated, this government turns to U.S. tech giants much too quickly. They're demanding attestation of goodwill towards climate goals for government loans to appease their one world order investors and have all but abandoned Canada's agriculture resource sector as well as many of the emerging sectors being defined by entrepreneurs.

We know that Canada is well positioned to be a legitimate global player in the so-called “big data field”, especially in industries where the country already has an advantage, such as agriculture, mining, infrastructure, health care, and oil and gas.

My question is to Mr. Balsillie from the Council of Canadian Innovators. Your group has long advocated that the government develop a national data strategy in support of Canada's brightest minds and entrepreneurs, who will be so vital to our future economic success. What do you think the consequences will be if the present government fails to develop an effective plan to reopen the economy in the wake of COVID-19 and doesn't develop a plan for the economy of the future?

[Jim Balsillie]

Thank you for the question.

If we don't come forward with a national data strategy—data is crosscutting, and it affects not only our prosperity but also our norms, our democracy, our security and our mental health—then I think we'll lose our sovereignty as a country in security, prosperity and democracy. I can't think of a more important policy priority.

It's very important to know that about 250,000 global patents have been filed just on AI alone in the past 20 years. Canada is the only country in the WIPO report of leading AI filers to have a reduction in its IP filings in AI.

We may not even have the right to apply algorithms on our own data, because we don't have what's called the “freedom to operate” patents to do that. That would be part of a national data strategy.

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

Thank you very much.

I believe it's also been mentioned that Canada needs to diversify its products, not just its markets. We can think back again to the Prime Minister's line during the first government where he noted that Canada needs to be known for its resourcefulness, not its resources.

Of course, the government did that after it had to focus the vast majority of its resources on this so-called “green sector” while virtually ignoring everyone else, particularly our world-class natural resource environmental expertise that we should be marketing around the world instead of acting like it's something to apologize for.

This and many other things are critical factors accelerating the exodus of Canada's best and brightest. I'm wondering if you could talk about how we could bring back some of those folks who have been pushed towards Silicon Valley in the U.S.

[Jim Balsillie]

They can't go there now, so we should have a strategy to welcome them and make sure that the opportunities are here. I actually think that every business is a tech business and just about every business is a clean-tech business. The way that you become a clean-tech business and a prosperous business with good jobs is by controlling the value chains of IP and data. It creates a very virtuous cycle. If we start taking control of our destiny in this very expert and technical realm, we'll be fine.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Our next round of questions goes to MP Lambropoulos. You have five minutes.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here with us today to answer our questions.

I had a question similar to what MP Dreeshen just asked. Mr. Balsillie, you spoke about reversing brain drain and using the pandemic to keep our most innovative and brightest minds in the country. I was wondering if, as the chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators, you'd be willing to share with us some strategies.

I know that obviously there's the value chain and making sure that they feel valued, but I'm looking for something more specific. Can you give us some very specific recommendations? If you knew that tomorrow the government would implement your strategy, what would you give us as advice?

[Jim Balsillie]

My first recommendation was create an innovation core along the line of our tech talent radar portal whereby we make sure that these people find better jobs in Canada for the summertime that they're here, because the border may not open for eight or 12 months. We have an unusual opportunity to reverse the brain drain. It would be reversed temporarily, but we can actually make Canada a preferred destination.

In certain key computer science disciplines at the University of Waterloo, 90% of the graduates leave Canada for Silicon Valley. They can't leave now, so the top students are here. Let's have them build our country, make them our leaders, deploy them and make that our orientation.

That's what I mean by the sense of opportunity. How do we deploy them in a strategic fashion and make sure that we're building industries where they feel that they're building something exciting for the future, for themselves and for the nation?

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you very much.

You also mentioned in your introductory statement that we're in a 21st century data- and knowledge-driven economy but that we use practices of the 19th and 20th centuries and that we need to bring our smart policy measures forward.

As I am one of the last questioners today, are there any recommendations that you would like to bring forward that you haven't already mentioned?

[Jim Balsillie]

I've mentioned them all in figure 3, in the digital policy infrastructure.

I think the one recommendation I would make on top of that is we have to be honest about the degree to which our policy community has been captured by foreign interests. They're not interested in our having a sovereign, prosperous approach; they're interested in our being cheap labour and being easily exploitable markets for foreign goods, because that's what you're supposed to do when you're a foreign company setting up a branch plant.

A sovereign Canada is not their job and not what they're interested in, so we have to be very cautious about the degree to which foreign companies have captured the regulatory mechanisms and policy-making of our country. I see it every day, which is why I articulate the counter-narrative that the true Canadian innovators believe in.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you very much.

If I have any remaining time, I'd like to pass it on to my colleague, MP Longfield.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I wasn't expecting that.

How much time do I have, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

You have one minute and 35 seconds.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I'd like to start with Supply Chain Canada and Mr. Buhagiar.

The Magna Centre for Supply Chain Excellence is located in Cambridge. The federal government has put a lot of money into the research centre that's being created there. We can see how companies like Magna, General Motors and others have pivoted in this crisis. Where should we be focusing on investment in research coming out of COVID-19, in terms of supply chain?