Industry Committee on Oct. 29th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I now call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number two of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the House order of September 23, 2020.

The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.

So that you are aware, let me say that the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entire committee.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I'm going to outline a few rules to follow.

Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either the floor, English or French. For members participating in person, proceed as you usually would when the committee is meeting in person in a committee room. Keep in mind the directives from the Board of Internal Economy regarding masking and health protocols. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference—

[A voice]

I don't think any of us can hear, just so we're all clear.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

—please click on the microphone icon to unmute.

For those in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Michael MacPherson]

May I interrupt? I'm sorry, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Yes?

[The Clerk]

We're not getting the sound through the Zoom application.

I'm going to ask at this point that you please suspend, and we'll regulate the sound issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Okay, I'm going to suspend for a few moments.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

We will resume, with my apologies for the technical difficulties.

When you are not speaking, I ask that your mike be on mute or your microphone in the room be turned off.

With regard to the speaking list, I have the list and will make sure to give you the prompt when you are up next. As is my normal practice, I will hold up a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining in your intervention and will hold up a red card when the time for your intervention is over.

Just before we get to our witnesses, we have a small committee item that we need to dispose of.

Members should have a copy of the first report of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure. If we could have it quickly adopted, we can then proceed to today's witnesses.

Do I have agreement for the adoption of the report of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Perfect. It is adopted.

Pursuant to Standing Orders 110 and 111, the committee is meeting today to consider the order in council appointment of Lisa Campbell to the position of president of the Canadian Space Agency, referred to the committee on Friday, October 2, as well as the order in council appointment of Marsha Walden to the position of president of the Canadian Tourism Commission, referred to the committee on Friday, September 25.

I will now invite Ms. Campbell to present.

You have up to seven minutes, after which we will have our second witness, Ms. Walden, present, and then we will go to our rounds of questions.

With that, I turn the mike over to Ms. Campbell.

You have the floor for up to seven minutes.

[Lisa Campbell, President, Canadian Space Agency]

Thank you very much.

Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you virtually. I hope that each of you and also your families are doing well.

I joined the Canadian Space Agency, or CSA, in September of this year. A lawyer by profession for almost the past three decades, I've worked in both public and private sectors. I have experience in the areas of competition enforcement, data regulation and procurement, among others.

I'm joined today by my colleagues, Luc Brûlé, vice-president, science and technology, and Mary Preville, acting vice-president, space program policy.

If you will bear with me, I'll just change the language for the interpreters.

The CSA has accomplished extraordinary things, and we believe that the space sector can contribute enormously to Canada's economic renewal during these unprecedented times.

The CSA's work focuses on three areas.

First, and perhaps most visible, are activities in space exploration. We lead Canada's participation on the International Space Station, the Canadian astronaut program, and scientific missions to explore our solar system.

Second is a growing area of investment and interest worldwide, which is the rich data from earth-observation satellites that help us understand our planet, how to manage our natural resources and more. Increasingly, we can maximize high-quality space data to serve and protect Canadians and spur innovation and economic development. The speed of commercial satellite deployment, implementation of faster communication technologies and onset of interplanetary missions are augmenting the role of data in space industries. Our RADARSAT constellation mission is part of this trend. Its three-satellite configuration provides data for climate research, security and commercial applications. Unlocking the power of this data is vital to Canada's competitiveness globally.

Third, we work to support science and technology in a multitude of areas, including optics, health, robotics, satellite communications and radar. We're growing this innovative sector in Canada and preparing for new missions.

In 2019, the government launched a new space strategy for Canada: exploration, imagination and innovation. With the brilliant CSA team, we're advancing the space program in Canada and, internationally, positioning our domestic space industry for success. The return on investment in space is massive, and it's a growth sector. In the next 20 years, the global space economy will nearly triple in size, reaching a trillion dollars. At the CSA, we're committed to positioning Canadian researchers, entrepreneurs and investors to seize their share of this new, emerging global market. We want to help them contribute to the global economic recovery, while continuing to secure socioeconomic benefits here at home.

In recent months, we've been doing extensive outreach with industry, academia and international counterparts. We've participated in international conferences of the G20 space community and the International Astronautical Congress. Like the rest of the world, we're gearing up for exciting missions to the moon and beyond.

We're proud to have secured Canada's participation in the next large-scale international space collaboration—the lunar gateway program—by contributing our Canadarm3. We're also among eight nations to sign the Artemis Accords a few weeks ago, which we believe will help create a transparent environment for space exploration, science and commercial space activities. We're continuing to support cutting-edge space-exploration technologies, such as artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, health and more, which will be demonstrated on future missions to the lunar surface.

These investments have allowed Canada to play critical roles on internationally led missions, such as OSIRIS-REx, which some of you may have seen in the news recently. We just collected a sample from the surface of an asteroid. Canada's crucial contribution was recognized worldwide, with our expertise ensuring the success of the mission.

In a country as vast as ours, observing earth from space helps us support Canadians, exercise sovereignty and manage our natural resources. Advances in machine learning, big-data analytics and data integration techniques are revolutionizing the field of earth observation at a time when there is more demand for detailed information about our planet.

We are daring to imagine a future where Canadians across the country, from any sector, have unlimited access to easy-to-use digital platforms; where data is turned into information to, for example, issue advance warning for air quality and disaster management; where cities can plan greener infrastructure projects more efficiently; where regulators or industry can detect infrastructure failures; and where farmers can visualize crop conditions and crop yields, predicting market pricing and perhaps leading to better management for anticipated transportation bottlenecks.

Today we have elements of this vision in place. Our experience with the RADARSAT program, which today is capturing 250,000 radar images of the earth, means we have a great base on which to grow. We'll equip Canada with the data and analytical tools needed for the future.

Like sectors across the planet, the space sector has been impacted by COVID-19 and the measures needed to contain the pandemic. We've reprioritized some of our activities and funding to ensure that industry and academia can continue to innovate and seize opportunities.

Since March, we've doubled short-term financial investments in our science and technology programs, representing an increase of $25 million over existing plans pre-pandemic and a total investment of $52 million over 2 years.

These efforts will benefit up to 90 projects in large, medium and small companies, as well as 12 universities from coast to coast. It will advance promising space technology, and support R and D and the development of innovative concepts, helping develop talent and positioning the sector for success.

Space exploration technologies are at the epicentre of scientific development. Among the many motivations for space exploration, advancing scientific knowledge and understanding is increasingly crucial for our society. Intrinsic value flows from it, and space science is a rich avenue because of the challenges it poses, forcing us to look up and out in completely novel ways. Increasing access to space innovation and research with the new environments and situations, the vast unknowns, that space offers stress tests our systems and beliefs.

Improvements in science inevitably lead to progress in other areas, and as we start employing them wherever science gets used, it generates public good and creates new industries.

I see the time signal. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Through space exploration, we better understand ourselves, our planet and our universe.

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much, Ms. Campbell.

With that, we will now move to Ms. Walden.

Just so you know, you do not need to switch the language any more. With the latest version of Zoom, you can just keep it on interpretation or whatever language you're speaking. If you're going back and forth, keep it on “Floor”, and then you can just go to whatever language you choose, but please pause during the switchover.

With that, Madam Walden, you have the floor for up to seven minutes.

[Marsha Walden, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Tourism Commission]

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for inviting me to speak to the committee today.

I'd like to acknowledge that I'm joining you from the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples today—the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations.

I'll be providing today's remarks primarily in English, but I'll also say a few words in French.

French is my second language. As part of my appointment, I have committed to improving upon my French skills—it's a commitment that I take very seriously.

Both official languages are spoken widely throughout the organization. I am exceptionally proud of the team, 35% of whom are bilingual.

I have spent seven years, so far, serving the tourism sector, first at a provincial level and now federally.

Never has our country or the world faced such a dire situation across a sector, a sector that employs 1 in 10 Canadians or 1.9 million people in all corners of our country, contributing $44 billion in annual GDP.

While I recognize that my invitation today is to introduce myself and to address my recent appointment as Destination Canada's president and CEO, I feel it is important that I share some of the background of our sector as a whole because it's why, in part, I chose to serve this sector and what compelled me to apply for this position.

My career spans executive leadership roles in strategy and organizational renewal, marketing and communications, corporate social responsibility, operations management and business innovation. I've worked with enterprises in many of Canada's flagship industries, but I found my true calling in tourism.

I joined Destination British Columbia as president and CEO in 2013. At that time, it was a newly formed provincial Crown corporation. I led ground-breaking strategies for tourism development and nationally recognized data-driven performance-marketing programs.

These efforts were done very much in collaboration with Destination Canada, as well as our provincial, regional and city partners, all of us part of team Canada in the tourism space.

When the position of president and CEO came up at Destination Canada, I was compelled to put my name forward, knowing the challenges that lie ahead for the sector. But I would say an even greater motivator are the opportunities at hand.

I genuinely believe that tourism improves the quality of life for all Canadians. It supports the restaurants and the entertainment we enjoy, the art galleries and museums we visit, the festivals and aquariums we take our kids to, and a huge diversity of local jobs that cannot be exported. From hotel workers to helicopter pilots, tourism is Canada’s biggest employer of young people and women.

Right now the sector is at risk of losing more than half of the jobs in the visitor economy. After five years of growth—and having been poised for a decade more of strong growth—we are forecasting that the sector will not recover to 2019 levels until 2024.

Tourism revenues are uniquely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The summer season represents the core revenue generator for the industry, and it was devastated. The impacts are extremely far-reaching. Consider wonderful events in our social sphere, such as the Calgary Stampede, the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Sunrise Festival in Inuvik and so many others that have been cancelled.

Consider the wider set of sectors that are integral to tourism, including airlines, cruises and hospitality. Those are largely closed or operating at huge losses. These sectors fuel the florist, the farmer, the fisher and the festival-goer. Tourism creates a ripple of economic, socio-cultural and environmental benefits, in communities big and small, all across our nation.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the work at Destination Canada has evolved very quickly. Normally, it is our role to focus primarily on the export side of tourism’s service economy, to lead international marketing, to drive demand and to provide research for industry and government intelligence.

We immediately realized that recovery would begin at a very hyper-local level and made $30 million available for domestic marketing by providing funds to our provincial and territorial partners—who matched it dollar-for-dollar—to maintain our presence and support of local communities.

We have also shifted focus domestically working with our partners.

We know that, in 2019, Canadian travellers injected $40 billion abroad. Our current environment presents a huge opportunity to capture what is typically taken offshore.

We've continued to supply our industry and our government with timely data and forecasts to support their decision-making and policy-making. Internationally, we are now focused on maintaining our key account relationships to ensure that Canada remains top of mind in our supply chain when international travel can safely resume.

For tourism, recovery presents a national challenge that calls for deep collaboration at all levels of industry and government to fully realize and regain its future potential. Today we can reimagine our industry to be a more competitive sector in future, one that can be an even more powerful force for good for communities and people across our nation.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

With that we will start our rounds of questions. We'll start with the first round.

Our first MP is MP Baldinelli. You have the floor for six minutes.

Thank you.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to say thank you to the witness and congratulate her on her appointment as president and CEO of Destination Canada. She's assuming this position at a critical time for our travel and tourism sector.

I had the pleasure of reviewing the state of the industry report. Within it were some staggering numbers, to say the least. You're indicating that if the border remains closed until the end of 2020, you're forecasting a 61% drop in tourism revenues. In my own community of Niagara Falls, that's about 70%. Again, you're forecasting that we shouldn't recover until 2024 from the high in 2019. Your report is specific in stating that it would be “a catastrophic loss for our economy”. Those are your organization's own words.

We've lost about 354,000 jobs. Statistics Canada says we could be losing up to 500,000 by the end of the year. Your report says that “without significant intervention, more jobs will be lost.”

Ms. Walden, has Destination Canada—your organization, working with the federal government—reached out to you to consult with you on the development of a sector-specific tourism recovery plan?

[Marsha Walden]

Thank you for your question.

Yes, we've been developing strategies throughout the period of what we call immediate response and relief and are looking forward to the recovery and resilience phases of reigniting our sector. We've been providing a lot of research and sector intelligence to support the decisions and policy-making of ISED and our ministerial colleagues. We've been working very closely with our board to develop strategies that will enable our sector to recover most quickly.

In short, I would say we're working very closely to help support policy-making that is really tourism-specific and helping to drive decisions that will enable recovery.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Going back to your report, it indicates that we need to “provide a light at the end of the tunnel” and that the November to March period has some of the lowest overall visitation numbers, with many businesses facing decisions about whether to stay open. It seems to be a call to action for the federal government to take specific actions for this sector, as we have been asking since March.

I would like to know from you now: Do we need a sector-specific tourism recovery plan?

[Marsha Walden]

Like all sectors, we are currently working on specific initiatives that will enable tourism here, domestically and internationally. It's Destination Canada's role to ensure that we have strategies that address all market conditions. Certainly, the current ones are extremely challenging, but we definitely have a plan of action to take us into the recovery. We are working closely with government to ensure that we are aligned in how we do that.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Thank you.

The majority of stakeholders I'm speaking with are saying if we are to chart a path forward, we need to begin implementing and adopting rapid testing as a critical tool to help us achieve this tourism recovery.

Do you agree?

[Marsha Walden]

I think that most elements in our sector are looking for innovative solutions to try to reopen the borders in the safest possible way. Where there are opportunities for testing different approaches, I believe the health authorities and government are examining all of those.

We would not specifically become involved in any of that type of policy-making, but I am encouraged to see that our sector is proposing innovative solutions to government that are being considered.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

In your remarks, you had mentioned the role of Destination Canada. You had started in August—the $30-million fund—working with the provincial and territorial destination marking boards, which is great. It is a start. You were also saying that you're going to be targeting that $40 billion that had been previously spent abroad by Canadians to kind of stay home.

That's why I was kind of surprised when I was looking at the supplementary estimates (B) for 2021 and noticed that no new money was committed by the federal government to the Canadian Tourism Commission, which is now known as Destination Canada.

What is your reaction to that?

[Marsha Walden]

We work with the appropriations that we are provided. We make the best possible use of those in the markets where we feel there's the most opportunity.

At this time we do not have any insight into changes to our budget. We feel that we can do good work with the appropriation that we have.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

What kind of signal for incoming relief and recovery efforts does that send when tourism businesses and workers, who are are looking for a sign from the government, see that it's not committing additional funds to this organization?

I come from a community that has 40,000 tourism employees. They no longer want the Canada recovery benefit; they want to go back to work. I have 4,000 casino employees alone who have been off work since March.

What is that path forward and how best can Destination Canada help?

[Marsha Walden]

Well, these are policy decisions that Destination Canada has an opportunity to contribute its thinking toward. We do not make the decisions.

However, I know that many of our sector associations, some of whom I believe appeared before this committee earlier, have made representations to government about what they believe is most needed and where funding may be helpful.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Also, there are several stakeholder groups that have been advocating and putting forward suggestions to the federal government. For example, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada has put forward that the the federal government should develop and implement a tourism incentive program.