Ted Hsu

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, October 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for my colleague.

Generally speaking, a change in tax regulations is a very technical and complicated subject in and of itself. Is this not sufficient justification to separate out this part of the bill?

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, October 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, on January 1, the EI premiums are going to be hiked for small businesses something like $400 million. The government is offering a tax credit for small businesses to offset that but it is only $200 million. I would like to ask the chair of the finance committee if he would support doubling that tax credit for small businesses so that his fellow Conservative members would not have to vote for a tax hike on small businesses.

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, October 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring up an example of a matter that deserves more consideration in this chamber before it goes to committee. That is the matter of the reduction of certain tax credits related to scientific research and experimental development. This is hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits that is going away. If I were in a hurry I would probably do something that people on the other side of the floor would do, which would be to call this a tax increase since it is the elimination of a tax credit. I am sure the government would not want me to do that. This is a good example of something that has a rather complicated effect on businesses and something that affects hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes that would now be paid by businesses in Canada every year.

As a result of its size and because of its complexity and because of its importance to the economic future of this country, I believe that this legislation is an example of something that deserves more discussion in this chamber before it goes to committee.

[Science and Technology, October 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would emphasize that the question was not about the overall level of research spending. I know the parliamentary secretary wants to talk about the levels of spending. It is not about the overall level of spending. It is surprising to hear a Conservative member answer a question about how to spend money by saying that we are spending lots of money.

If we look at the number of discovery grants at NSERC, it has been going down in the last five years. In the aftermath of the budget in the spring, the research tools and instrumentation program was cut at NSERC. The major resource support program was frozen. There are a lot of complaints from labs across the country. Because their research will be cut, they will need to cut the number of users of certain major infrastructure facilities in Canada. If one talks to people working in basic research, the message is that their funding is being cut and this will impact the long-term innovation in Canada's economy.

[Science and Technology, October 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, the parliamentary secretary, for being here tonight to answer these questions.

My question is not about the overall level of funding for research in Canada. It is not about the overall number of research projects that are supported by the federal government. I hope the member opposite does not simply recite those figures again, which is what happened in question period the first time.

My question is about the fact that the current government is moving toward more support for industry-academic partnerships, which is research directed by a particular industry partner that has proprietary interests. By itself, this is okay, but what is happening is that this new support for industry-academic partnerships is coming at the expense of funding basic research. That is what is happening now in the budget of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and it is happening at the National Research Council.

Game changing discoveries come from basic research. I will give one example of this sort of curiosity-driven research which results in unexpected discoveries that have a lot of economic importance.

The example comes from the University of Sherbrooke. In the late 1980s, it developed something called the algebraic code-excited linear prediction. It is a patented mathematical algorithm for converting sounds, such as voice messages, to digital signals. In fact, it is used in most cellphones around the world today. It is used in Windows Media Player, RealPlayer and QuickTime Player. These are things that are familiar to people who use computers and the Internet today.

This is an example of basic research, which was not conducted with any particular company's bottom line or near or middle-term interests in mind. However, I think the researchers realized that this research had a lot of potential, so they undertook it.

A lot of people would say that Canadian research needs to be more attuned to what the market is saying, what the needs of the market are, and we should be asking the market what research needs to be done. However, this is not always the case and there are some interesting historical examples of where the market has been wrong.

These are some rather famous quotes.

Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said in 1943, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”.

Ken Olsen, the president and founder of DEC, Digital Equipment Corporation, said in 1977, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home”.

One of the Warner brothers said in 1927, “Who the...wants to hear actors talk?”

Steve Jobs said, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

The market does not always know a good next step in the development of some technology. Therefore, it is important to support the possibility of unexpected game changing discoveries that are directed by the curiosity of researchers.

Why is the government funding moving away to research where a company decides what a university research does and doing that at the expense of basic research? Again, my question is not about the overall level of spending in research. It is not about the number of projects that are supported. I hope my hon. colleague will answer in that respect.

[Science and Technology, October 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, where will the jobs for the next generation of Canadian workers come from? In Kingston and the Islands, many will come from supporting basic research and the commercialization of discoveries made at Queen's University.

Laser Depth Dynamics is a new company that was just incorporated last week. It has patents on technology to measure how deep lasers penetrate materials, technology that has broad, game-changing applications in manufacturing, technology that was developed by Paul Webster, a student of Professor James Fraser and a soon to be PhD. from my old physics department at Queen's.

This week, Paul will receive the 2012 Martin Walmsley Fellowship for Technological Entrepreneurship from the Ontario Centres of Excellence. This funding lets him work to bring his technology to market.

NSERC and PARTEQ Innovations at Queen's University can be proud too.

I wish the best of luck to Paul as he builds his company and creates high-quality jobs in Kingston and the Islands.

[Engineering Awards, October 23rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate this year's Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards winners, who have been recognized by the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of Canada. ACEC represents more than 500 companies in all regions of Canada that provide professional engineering services to both public and private sector clients.

All parties in the House support infrastructure investments as key to Canada's economic and social well-being. The federal government has a vital role to play in the development of a long-term infrastructure plan for Canada when the Building Canada fund expires in less than two years.

This year's recipients represent the full spectrum of infrastructure projects and demonstrate the entire range of expertise present in Canada today.

Together with all parties, I congratulate all winners of this year's Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards.

[Petitions, October 23rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I have a very simple petition today from Canadians who are unhappy with cuts to VIA Rail service. They simply ask that the VIA Rail service throughout Canada that existed on January 1, 2012, be reinstated.

[Patent Act, October 16th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the hon. member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie for bringing this matter before us again by introducing this bill.

I thank the hon. member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie for bringing forward Bill C-398, which would amend the Canadian access to medicines regime. It is my pleasure to speak today in support of the bill and to move it to committee stage by voting for it at second reading. It is time to move the bill to committee and move on the legislative process, which was interrupted in the last election after it passed this House with support from all parties.

We are very fortunate in Canada that we live in a country where we are able to benefit from medication and as a country we have the infrastructure and the know-how to produce medicines. As Canadians, we also feel that we have an obligation to help those around the planet who are less fortunate, who are sick or dying and could be helped if they had access to medicines that exist today.

That was the motivation for Bill C-9, the original Canada access to medicines regime, also known as the Jean Chrétien Pledge to Africa Act.

Some medicines are expensive and the point of CAMR is to make available to developing countries safe, generic versions of medicines manufactured in Canada and to do it within international rules on trade and on intellectual property rights. It is intended to provide the competitive pressure to reduce the cost barrier to those countries that would never be able to afford the medicine but would greatly benefit from it and where people are in dire need of the medicine. We know that other countries can produce generic drugs but the Canadian product is produced with higher standards in quality control and it will provide competition on that basis.

CAMR came into force in 2005 but, as people have noticed, since that time this regime has only been used to provide one shipment of medicine to one country so far, which is why we believe there are barriers. One of the barriers that has been identified is the cumbersome licensing process.

The core of Bill C-398 is to provide the so-called one licence solution, which would remove the need for each individual country to make a request for a compulsory licence to produce generic drugs that are needed for serious health problems in these countries. It would remove the need for individual countries to apply and, instead, a Canadian generic pharmaceutical manufacturer would apply for the licence for all countries.

This reform has been sought for several years now, and in the previous Parliament, Bill C-393, upon which Bill C-398 is based, passed this House with support from all parties and probably would have come into force had the May 2011 election not been called.

I want to expand a little bit on the remarks that my colleague from Laurier—Sainte-Marie made and I want to talk a little bit about intellectual property issues, which were the subject of the speech by my hon. colleague from the Conservative benches.

Advocates for reforming CAMR do not wish to jeopardize pharmaceutical R and D in Canada. They have said that an I think they do believe in the importance of the knowledge economy , and one of its pillars, the value of intellectual property.

I think we all agree that Canada's future will depend very much on its participation in the knowledge economy and nobody wants our kids to be competing in the world on the basis of providing the lowest cost labour. I believe that the drafters of Bill C-398 recognize some of these concerns.

For example, Bill C-398 improves upon Bill C-393 in that respect by specifying that Canadian generic manufacturers must post online the quantities of medicine being exported to each country. They must also put online the notification that each WTO country gave to the WTO trade related aspects of intellectual property rights council, or, for a non-WTO country, the notice that country gave to the Government of Canada.

The old bill, Bill C-393 from the last Parliament, at first removed a two-year time limit on licences before a renewal was required. In the last Parliament this was amended in committee to restore that time limit. Bill C-398 keeps that two-year time limit in the current draft. Drafters of the bill have responded to concerns about an open-ended licence in time.

In the spirit of the changes that the drafters of Bill C-398 have made, compared to Bill C-393 that already passed the House in the last Parliament, we could make some amendments to emphasize that it is not the intent of the bill to negatively impact any R and D investment in Canada. It is not the intent of the bill to devalue intellectual property that is a pillar of a knowledge economy.

People have asked me, for example, why Qatar is on the list of countries in the bill. It is a country with a per capita income of $90,000 per annum. I believe that no one wants that distraction. It really is distracting from the fact that people are sick and dying and need medicines that they cannot afford. Therefore, this is something we could look at in committee, the list of countries in schedule 2 of the bill, to remove these distractions that may lead people to question some aspects of the bill.

My colleague from the Conservative Party is worrying about safety issues. Some critics have worried that the generic drugs would not be subjected to safety reviews. However, section 21.04(3)(b) in the current legislation remains unchanged under Bill C-398 and affirms that any generic product must meet the requirements of the Food and Drugs Act and its regulations. Therefore, my hon. colleague is incorrect when he makes that point. It is an old point that was made in the past but this bill is slightly different and that point is covered. In fact, the advantage of importing drugs from Canada is that products are manufactured with higher standards and with better quality control.

I will be voting in favour of the bill. It is time to move toward reforming Canada's access to medicines regime, a process that was accidentally interrupted at the last election, but which had already passed the House. We must not delay in sending the bill to the next stage of the legislative process, to committee where we can examine it and related issues in detail, as we should examine every bill. We must move this bill to committee and I urge my colleagues to vote for the bill at second reading.

[Patent Act, October 16th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague to say a few words about the difference in the quality of the drugs made in Canada and the role that this plays in the competition between drugs from Canada and drugs from other countries.