Chair and members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you today.
Cybersecure Catalyst is a new centre for cybersecurity activities that was established last year by Ryerson University. It is permanently located in Brampton and will open its physical footprint in Brampton later this year. The centre will collaborate closely with governments and government agencies at all levels, private sector partners and other academic institutions across Canada to drive growth and innovation in the Canadian cybersecurity ecosystem.
We will deliver programming in four pillars. We will provide cybersecurity training for existing cybersecurity professionals, and introductory cybersecurity training for newcomers to the sector. We will support scaling-up Canadian cybersecurity companies through a unique commercial accelerator program. We will support applied cybersecurity R and D partnerships between academic institutions and private sector partners. Finally, we will deliver public education in cybersecurity, focusing on private citizens and small businesses.
In developing the mandate of Cybersecure Catalyst, Ryerson University engaged in a lengthy consultation process with industry and government, including a number of financial institutions. I think the results of this consultation process are important for our discussion of cybersecurity in the financial sector as a national economic security issue. When we asked major financial institutions and other private sector entities what they needed most from a university-based cybersecurity centre, the answer wasn't some specific technological tool or identified advance in the science. The overwhelming answer was more people. You have heard this from other witnesses before the committee today. In particular, we heard from financial institutions that they need their existing personnel to be upskilled to meet emerging threats, and they need more people to come into the sector to staff entry-level positions within their organizations. Every one of the major financial institutions in Canada has many current openings for cybersecurity personnel.
The anecdotal evidence taken from our consultation process is supported by the empirical evidence. As you have already heard from other witnesses in this hearing, in July of 2018 Deloitte and the Toronto Financial Services Alliance released a report that estimated that the demand for cybersecurity personnel in Canada was increasing by 7% annually and that 8,000 cybersecurity positions need to be filled by 2021.
It is important to note that this shortage is not just a security problem; it is an economic development problem. The lack of trained cybersecurity personnel creates staffing challenges for the regular operations of these financial institutions, but it also impacts these institutions' ability to create new and safe products and services for domestic and international markets. Crucially, the lack of trained personnel seriously impacts the ability for small and medium-sized Canadian cybersecurity companies to grow.
An interesting way to see the Canadian labour market problem in cybersecurity is to travel to Israel. Israel is generally acknowledged to have the strongest cybersecurity technology ecosystem in the world. The Israeli government has established a new major centre for cybersecurity activities in a small town in the Negev Desert about an hour by car from Tel Aviv, called Beersheba. In January, I travelled Beersheba to meet not with Israeli companies but with representatives of Canadian financial institutions that have established offices at Beersheba because they can find cybersecurity talent in Israel much more readily than they can in Canada.
That is the bad news. The good news is that this problem is well understood and efforts are being made to address the issue. This federal government's investments in cybersecurity in the 2018 budget were significant, in particular with the establishment of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. The centre is already acting as an important partner and voice for the cybersecurity sector in Canada. In the recently released 2019 budget, this government made cybersecurity a priority, allocating $80 million to post-secondary institutions to expand the pipeline of cybersecurity talent in Canada, among other measures.
Of course there is always more to do. In our view, training programs should focus on two key cohorts: young people in K to 12 and demographic groups that are seriously under-represented in the cybersecurity sector. Young people are not necessarily inclined to view cybersecurity as an interesting or exciting field of study or future employment, but this can change with the right engagement.
We will not solve the labour market issue of cybersecurity for financial institutions or for any other institutions if we don't open the cybersecurity sector to more women, racialized groups, new Canadians, indigenous Canadians, veterans and to those who have been displaced from legacy sectors. Efforts should be made to focus specifically on opening training and industry placement opportunities to individuals from these groups, and we will focus on that at Cybersecure Catalyst.
Finally, as our economy continues to transform, we see exciting opportunities to build talent pipelines between sectors where human labour is being displaced, and the cybersecurity sector where the need for qualified personnel is growing.
Thank you very much.
I'd be pleased to take your questions.