Evidence of meeting #36 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was technology.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
My question is for the DAI witnesses.
What is the total cost of all your recommendations?
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
I'm not really sure of the scope of what you're asking. Are you asking how much it would cost if...?
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
You have a series of recommendations at the back of your text. I'm just wondering how much they would all cost.
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
Those recommendations aren't going to cost.... Really, what is going to cost is an effort on the part of the departments to get organized for this.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
There is funding, risk sharing, and all that stuff.
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
Yes, the funding stuff—
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Generally that costs money. If you're saying all this can be done without any government money, I think we would all celebrate. Is that what you're saying?
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying a lot of the recommendations require the departments to do certain things.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Do you know what the cost would be for all of these recommendations?
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
For the developmental phase we're probably looking at $60 million to $80 million to get the first vehicle approved and certified.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
That would be the cost of the program. If the government could find a way to fund even half of that we would be ecstatic. I don't see it as being overly burdensome, from a financial point of view, to get through the development phase of this technology.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
It's probably $40 million to $50 million.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Why would Canadian taxpayers want to spend $40 million to $50 million developing United Kingdom intellectual property?
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
Part of our agreement has a lot of upside for Canadian industry, i.e., they are going to transfer manufacturing and final assembly here. The certification will happen here.
Ten years from now somebody is going to be doing this. Wherever that centre is established will become the global nucleus for how this gets developed. That will create thousands of jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. Canada has a strong history in aerospace development. This is an emerging transportation solution. If we don't get involved now it will bypass us and will be—
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Putting aside the jobs that are lost whenever you take $40 million out of the economy—when you take that money away from those who earned it to provide assistance to one industry or another—what are the job guarantees? Can you give the number of jobs and their duration?
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
I would say that the jobs associated with the creation of the centre of excellence will be in the thousands. Just for our operation alone we're probably looking at 400 people, and our company has rights to certain portions. We have certain commercial terms that are going to ensure multiple jobs. It won't be just us operating these things. We'll be supporting—
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
It's for manufacturing, assembly, all the in-service support, development of the training system, and all the exportation.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
We would do it in Canada.
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Government Services, Discovery Air Innovations
There are a number of provinces that are quite interested. Manitoba, Alberta, and Quebec have shown the most interest, to the point where I believe Alberta is actually going to fund a facility.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
We have businesses that set up all the time, every day, without any government money. They take enormous risks, by the way, and don't get government money. In fact they pay. It's the reverse. They pay taxes.
I always find it hard to understand why we should take money from those businesses, which causes job losses, to give it to another business.
Can you tell me why your enterprise should have the money we take from businesses that are in debt?