Industry Committee on Feb. 27th, 2020

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank all the witnesses for being here to answer our questions.

I believe that climate change is an extremely important issue. Many of my constituents in Saint-Laurent agree.

The riding of Saint-Laurent is also an industrial hub with lots of businesses and a technopark.

It's an issue that we can tackle first-hand just because of the technology that exists within the riding and the companies that produce this technology. There are many start-ups and there are many partnerships, even, between universities and companies, in order to come up with these clean technologies and with research that would back them up.

Can you please let us know how the Government of Canada and how we through this department can support these start-ups and support the partnerships between universities and companies to help them produce technologies that would allow us to go into the future in a cleaner way?

[Simon Kennedy]

To reiterate, clean technology is a significant priority for the government, and it's certainly a significant priority for Innovation, Science and Economic Development. We have the clean-tech hub, which is specifically there to support companies that are looking to expand their clean technologies, to get into foreign markets and to be able to sell in Canada.

As part of our portfolio, we have Sustainable Development Technology Canada, which is a fund that directly invests in clean tech. Through Innovation Canada, we have advisers across the country. One of the priorities of that branch and of our funding generally, whether it's the strategic innovation fund or the other programs I've talked about, is in fact clean technology.

There have been a number of what you might call purer clean tech plays in the investments that have been made, and certainly, as a general rule, in the kinds of investments and support that the federal government has provided in partnering with business over the last number of years: clean technology, reduction of greenhouse gases, water and those sorts of things.

As a general rule, we are seeking to have environmental benefits in investments, even if those are not in a company that would be, strictly speaking, a clean-tech company. It's a generalized priority across our programming, but we have specific programs to support clean-tech companies.

I'll give you another example. A number of months ago, we worked with the private sector, and with the global affairs ministry, to have a clean-tech trade mission to India. We brought a number of emerging, very promising clean-tech companies to India because there are significant needs in the clean-tech sector there. My understanding is that it was a very successful endeavour.

We're doing a lot of work. I could enumerate all the many investments, but you might not wish to have me eat into too much of your time. I'll just say, it's a major priority and we take it very seriously. It infuses a lot of the work we do and we have a number of instruments focused exclusively on it.

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

You mentioned the women entrepreneurship strategy in your notes and it is part of the estimates as well. I saw that about $10 million was invested in this strategy.

Can you speak to that and let us know what kinds of companies were invested in and how women can take advantage of these programs?

[Simon Kennedy]

The women entrepreneurship strategy is across government. This funding is for a particular piece of it. It was a top-up to funding that my ministry received as part of the broader cross-government strategy, but there are other ministries involved.

I'll give you some examples. The Business Development Bank of Canada is in our portfolio. As you know, this is a bank that lends funds to small and medium-sized businesses. It created a dedicated funding envelope of $1.4 billion over three years for debt financing for women-owned businesses in order to expand access to capital for them. It created a $200-million women in technology venture capital fund to invest in women-led businesses in technology, because, frankly, that has traditionally been an area in which the access to VC money for women has not been strong.

I'll stop there, because I know time is short. The approximately $9 million we receive is just a top-up to an existing strategy that is significantly larger. I cited only one small example of some of the things going on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you.

The next five-minute round goes to Mr. Dreeshen.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

When you were speaking about the women's entrepreneurship strategy, I noticed that some of the money that went into that came from the Department of Western Economic Diversification. When did your government direct you to do that? That is under the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. That's the first thing I'd be interested in knowing.

Secondly, you spoke about superclusters. In your testimony you talked about public record, things that are for the public record. Is the ownership of the IP also part of the public record, and what safeguards do you need as far as that is concerned?

That's the second part. I have five minutes, so I'll come back to other questions after you respond.

[Simon Kennedy]

I'll ask the CFO to answer the honourable member's questions, specifically on the issue of the transfer of funds and the women entrepreneurship strategy.

[Douglas McConnachie]

The $3.4 million that is proposed to be allocated to Western Economic Diversification is part of the $10-million envelope that is being spread across three organizations in the regional development agency portfolio. As Mr. Kennedy indicated, it is a top-up to existing funding of a program that has been in place for several years.

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

Did that come out of other economic development agencies as well—

[Douglas McConnachie]

No, it did not.

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

—or is it out of Western Economic Diversification?

[Douglas McConnachie]

No, the money is over and above funding that has already been allocated.

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

Okay.

My second question was about the superclusters.

[Simon Kennedy]

When I come back with the information in response to the previous question on this topic, that will cover the same grounds. I'd be happy to do that.

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

I'm not just looking at the process you use, but also whether the ownership of it is public record so that we can see how much of that is actually being transferred out of the country or being used for some of the other opportunities that might exist.

I notice also, in some of the parts that we have seen here, there's nothing for oil and gas, which had been part of the original documentation. Also, you had said, “As of March 2019, SDTC has invested in almost 400 companies, supporting over 13,000 jobs” and that “these companies have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 18 megatonnes annually.”

Are those the metrics that you are going to be using to determine what is really green technology? I think you'll find that, in terms of the tech funds, the extra carbon tax that Alberta has always had has gone into a fund. It is the reason we've been able to reduce the emissions for nearly every industry we have, to below international standards, and of course, that's really what we're looking for.

It would be nice to know whether, when we're talking about green tech out of your department, we are also looking at the types of advantages that the world has because of the technology we have in Alberta.

[Simon Kennedy]

On the issue of the member's question, I would just assure the member that when we're looking at clean technology, there are obviously a variety of metrics. Certainly, one of them would be the significant potential that the technology might have for export sales, and so on. The technology supported includes things such as clean water. There are a variety of objectives.

I wouldn't want to give that impression. I cited in my notes the very positive example of reduction in carbon, but it's not monolithic. That's not the only thing we're looking at.

There is another thing I will say. I did not mention it, but I'd be happy to speak about it.

There have been a number of very important investments in Alberta, as the honourable member noted, through the strategic innovation fund, including in the petrochemical and steel industries. We're working now with the Clean Resource Innovation Network on an investment in clean resources, which includes oil and gas. There has been some good activity there, too, and I'd be happy to speak about that if folks are interested.

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

The reason I mention that, of course, is that when you go through the minister's mandate, you never see anything in it about oil and gas. You talk about other industries that are associated with it, but for some reason, the mandate letter from the Prime Minister ignored that industry.

I thought I would want to let people understand perhaps where some of the thinking has been going.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

For our next round of questions, which is still five minutes, we have Madame Jaczek.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair; and thank you to the witnesses.

When I looked at the votes, vote 10b stood out for me. Though it's a relatively small dollar amount, I was really intrigued by the $500,000 for the digital literacy exchange program that apparently is designed to improve Canadians' digital skills.

First, which segment of the population does this program target?

[Simon Kennedy]

It is designed to target what you might call more vulnerable groups, people whose digital literacy, for a whole variety of reasons, might be more challenged. That could include seniors and others who might have concerns around digital literacy.

It is meant to be targeted, and I would be happy to come back to the member with more specific gradations, but just off the top of my head, it would be groups that have, for whatever reason, a digital deficit. They might not have had access to this type of learning. They might be behind on skills in this area for a variety of reasons.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Is this a program that is just being expanded, or is it new?

[Douglas McConnachie]

The allocation that you see in the supplementary estimates (B) is simply a re-profiling of funds that were not used in a previous year. They've been carried forward so as to maintain the integrity of the envelope of funds. It's not a net addition to the program funding but just a repurposing of funds.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Can you give me any details on how you're going to operationalize this?

[Simon Kennedy]

Madam Chair, there have already been agreements reached with various organizations to disburse the funds in support of digital literacy. I don't immediately have access to the list of organizations, but this would have been a program in which people would apply or they would be invited to apply. They would get access to some funding support to work on digital literacy.

I'm loath to pull an example out of the air, but it might be a community organization that works with seniors, that sort of thing. It's meant, really, to be organizations working at the front line with some of these groups that would be getting funding support to work along these lines.

I think, as the CFO has indicated, we just want to make sure we don't inadvertently have money lapse that would otherwise be available to these groups to do their work. We've already actually concluded the negotiations. These funding allocations have been made.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

So, it will be direct federal funding to the local organization, no requirement for provincial cost-sharing or anything like that.