Mr. Speaker, with regard to the 2022-2023 departmental plan for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario, or FedNor, the response is as follows.
With respect to part (a) of the question, FedNor has not set a target for the indicator “percentage of companies engaged in collaborations with higher education institutions in Northern Ontario”. The regional development agencies, or RDAs, adopted a common Departmental Results Framework, or DRF, in 2018-19 and, as part of Innovation Science and Economic Development’s portfolio at the time, were directed to select indicators that aligned with the Innovation and Skills Plan. The RDAs continue to work with Statistics Canada to obtain the percentage of companies engaged in collaborations with higher education institutions in each RDA’s region. Statistics Canada has informed the RDAs that distribution by RDA is not available for this indicator and has provided the outcomes for the following geographies: Canada, Atlantic Region, Quebec, Ontario, and Rest of Canada. For 2017-19, the most recent years for which data is available, 14% of companies in Ontario engaged in collaborations with higher education institutions. FedNor has not set a target for this indicator, as the Agency has not been able to obtain historical data for the region. FedNor does not report on or use the result for all of Ontario given that the majority of companies and higher education institutions are located in southern Ontario, and it is not known if the data for Northern Ontario is in line with the province’s result.
With respect to part (b) of the question, FedNor has not set a target for indicator “Dollar value of exports of clean technologies from Northern Ontario” because baseline data from Statistics Canada is not currently available. This indicator is part of the common RDA DRF structure implemented in 2018-19. The RDAs, particularly FedNor and Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, or FedDev, continue to work with Statistics Canada to obtain this data at the sub-provincial level. This indicator tracks the Innovation and Skills Plan Charter commitment to double Canada’s exports of clean tech by 2025, and supports commitments to the growth of Clean tech market share as a percentage of global exports in the Clean Growth and Climate Change Charter. Clean technology export value is based on customs data using specific Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, or HS, codes and weights associated with clean tech. This value will be provided directly from Statistics Canada through its Clean Technology Satellite Account when it is released publicly. Clean tech is understood as any process, product or service that reduces environmental impacts through environmental protection activities; the sustainable use of natural resources; the use of goods that have been specifically modified or adapted to be significantly less energy or resource intensive than the industry standard. In future, data will be developed and provided through Statistics Canada Clean Technology Satellite Account through customs data requests. Data is not currently available for Northern Ontario. FedNor will work with Statistics Canada to obtain the necessary data.