Industry Committee on May 8th, 2024

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I was certainly happy to hear about the universal broadband fund because, in my own community, the regional municipality used those funds to put a fibre optic backbone throughout the entire region. That made access to fibre optic broadband a lot more palatable in terms of pricing, because the suppliers of the last mile didn't need to put the backbone in—but I digress.

In the 2024-25 estimates, the National Research Council is requesting a total of about $1.6 million. I see that its responsibility includes science innovation, which, according to the departmental plan, comprises scientific and technological knowledge advancement, innovative business growth and evidence-based solutions to inform government decisions. What are the priority research areas for this year, and can you expand on the NRC's progress in those areas?

I ask Mr. Kennedy to direct that to whoever is appropriate.

[Simon Kennedy]

My proposal is to ask my colleague, the president of the National Research Council, to prepare an answer to the member's question. We'll be happy to table that at the committee. I apologize. I don't run the NRC directly, but they have an extensive list of priorities. They've actually gone through a whole priority-setting exercise in the last couple of years, so I think it would not be that difficult to come back with a fuller accounting of what they're focusing on, if that's okay.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

In the process of doing so, I'm interested in this year's funding—how much the NRC would attribute to both domestic and international partnerships through the grants and contributions. I want to see how much we are investing here and how much we are investing externally, if that's possible.

[Simon Kennedy]

It's noted. We'll follow up with the NRC about those requests.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I shift, then, over to Statistics Canada. It's requesting $736 million, an additional almost $204 million compared to last year's estimates. The plan for the department focuses on the agency's continued modernization—and we heard about that in the digitization of service delivery—but how will Statistics Canada leverage large language models and generative artificial intelligence to deliver timely and reliable data? The reason I want to expand on that is that we're undertaking the study with Bill C-27, and I'd like to have an understanding as to how that might impact the government's plans, specifically through Statistics Canada.

Mr. Kennedy, I'll let you direct that too.

[Simon Kennedy]

I'll ask Mr. Schaan whether he has any information he'd like to pass on. I think that, to give a fuller answer that might satisfy the member, it might be useful to get the chief statistician to pull together a more detailed response, but I'm happy if Mark has any further elaboration.

[Mark Schaan]

I'll just quickly say that Statistics Canada has long been at the forefront of new models for utilizing technology to aid and abet the statistical system. It wasn't AI, but certainly their pioneering efforts in waste water as a means to be able to continue to understand both the use of drugs and the relative level of vaccines and pandemic incidents was novel.

They have continued to do that as well in the artificial intelligence space. I'd note that they've been active in discussions about how to potentially draw on those. I think we would be best to come back with a report from the acting chief statistician to detail exactly what that looks like, but I can say that they've been actively involved, including in the standards based around how to standardize information for the purposes of the use of artificial intelligence, including with the Standards Council of Canada as well as with a number of other dialogues around AI in the continued consistency of information we're gathering.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you.

My final question is on the fact that the estimates include $52.6 million to continue Canada's participation in the International Space Station until 2030. What will this funding mean for Canadian astronauts?

[Simon Kennedy]

I would say that we are, obviously, a partner in the International Space Station, and we're working closely with our allies on the plans to return to the moon. This is part and parcel of our responsibilities in that regard. I think it would probably be best if Lisa Campbell, the president of the agency, were to elaborate in greater detail, but, by confirming our participation in the ISS, I can confirm that it does help us secure it. It secures a flight for a Canadian astronaut to the station and sustained access to that particular environment.

I mean, in effect, if we want to keep sending our astronauts to the space station and participating, we have to help pay the bills, and that's what that funding is for. I think Lisa could probably talk at greater length about the specifics of where the funding goes.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Those are all my questions, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you very much, MP Van Bynen.

That concludes our round and the hour, so I want to thank the officials for joining us this evening.

Colleagues, before I adjourn the meeting, we have to vote on the estimates. I don't know if you want to do this right now. It's not very long, and it's a familiar process.

The first thing is that I would need unanimous consent to group them all together. Do I have unanimous consent?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Shall all the votes, less the amounts voted in the interim supply, carry?

ATLANTIC CANADA OPPORTUNITIES AGENCY

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$70,390,767

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$306,694,872

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

CANADIAN NORTHERN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$21,698,804

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$47,557,663

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$242,285,439

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$80,059,782

Vote 10—Grants and contributions..........$79,468,000

(Votes 1, 5 and 10 agreed to on division)

CANADIAN TOURISM COMMISSION

Vote 1—Payments to Commission..........$115,967,712

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

COPYRIGHT BOARD

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$4,045,082

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$618,058,710

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$76,406,772

Vote 10—Grants and contributions..........$5,243,950,500

Vote L15—Payments under subsection 14(2) of the Department of Industry Act..........$300,000

Vote L20—Loans under paragraph 14(1)(a) of the Department of Industry Act..........$500,000

(Votes 1, 5, 10, L15 and L20 agreed to on division)

DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$41,478,066

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$275,379,745

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF CANADA FOR THE REGIONS OF QUEBEC

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$44,487,260

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$266,261,739

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

FEDERAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY FOR NORTHERN ONTARIO

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$15,173,274

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$38,172,996

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

FEDERAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY FOR SOUTHERN ONTARIO

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$34,929,462

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$190,020,359

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$582,386,328

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$152,061,000

Vote 10—Grants and contributions..........$610,696,760

(Votes 1, 5 and 10 agreed to on division)

NATURAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH COUNCIL

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$58,597,413

Vote 5—Grants..........$1,318,171,508

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

PACIFIC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF CANADA

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$29,134,464

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$89,283,824

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$44,248,882

Vote 5—Grants..........$1,148,878,654

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

STANDARDS COUNCIL OF CANADA

Vote 1—Payments to the Council..........$21,397,106

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

STATISTICS CANADA

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$648,221,726

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Shall I report the votes, less the amounts voted in interim supply, to the House?

[Some hon. members]

On division.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you very much. On that note, thanks again to the officials.

The meeting is adjourned.