:
I now call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number two of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the House order of September 23, 2020.
The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
So that you are aware, let me say that the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entire committee.
To ensure an orderly meeting, I'm going to outline a few rules to follow.
Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either the floor, English or French. For members participating in person, proceed as you usually would when the committee is meeting in person in a committee room. Keep in mind the directives from the Board of Internal Economy regarding masking and health protocols. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference—
A voice: I don't think any of us can hear, just so we're all clear.
The Chair:—please click on the microphone icon to unmute.
For those in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer.
:
We will resume, with my apologies for the technical difficulties.
When you are not speaking, I ask that your mike be on mute or your microphone in the room be turned off.
With regard to the speaking list, I have the list and will make sure to give you the prompt when you are up next. As is my normal practice, I will hold up a yellow card when you have 30 seconds remaining in your intervention and will hold up a red card when the time for your intervention is over.
Just before we get to our witnesses, we have a small committee item that we need to dispose of.
Members should have a copy of the first report of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure. If we could have it quickly adopted, we can then proceed to today's witnesses.
Do I have agreement for the adoption of the report of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
The Chair: Perfect. It is adopted.
Pursuant to Standing Orders 110 and 111, the committee is meeting today to consider the order in council appointment of Lisa Campbell to the position of president of the Canadian Space Agency, referred to the committee on Friday, October 2, as well as the order in council appointment of Marsha Walden to the position of president of the Canadian Tourism Commission, referred to the committee on Friday, September 25.
I will now invite Ms. Campbell to present.
You have up to seven minutes, after which we will have our second witness, Ms. Walden, present, and then we will go to our rounds of questions.
With that, I turn the mike over to Ms. Campbell.
You have the floor for up to seven minutes.
Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you virtually. I hope that each of you and also your families are doing well.
I joined the Canadian Space Agency, or CSA, in September of this year. A lawyer by profession for almost the past three decades, I've worked in both public and private sectors. I have experience in the areas of competition enforcement, data regulation and procurement, among others.
I'm joined today by my colleagues, Luc Brûlé, vice-president, science and technology, and Mary Preville, acting vice-president, space program policy.
If you will bear with me, I'll just change the language for the interpreters.
[Translation]
The CSA has accomplished extraordinary things, and we believe that the space sector can contribute enormously to Canada's economic renewal during these unprecedented times.
[English]
The CSA's work focuses on three areas.
First, and perhaps most visible, are activities in space exploration. We lead Canada's participation on the International Space Station, the Canadian astronaut program, and scientific missions to explore our solar system.
Second is a growing area of investment and interest worldwide, which is the rich data from earth-observation satellites that help us understand our planet, how to manage our natural resources and more. Increasingly, we can maximize high-quality space data to serve and protect Canadians and spur innovation and economic development. The speed of commercial satellite deployment, implementation of faster communication technologies and onset of interplanetary missions are augmenting the role of data in space industries. Our RADARSAT constellation mission is part of this trend. Its three-satellite configuration provides data for climate research, security and commercial applications. Unlocking the power of this data is vital to Canada's competitiveness globally.
Third, we work to support science and technology in a multitude of areas, including optics, health, robotics, satellite communications and radar. We're growing this innovative sector in Canada and preparing for new missions.
In 2019, the government launched a new space strategy for Canada: exploration, imagination and innovation. With the brilliant CSA team, we're advancing the space program in Canada and, internationally, positioning our domestic space industry for success. The return on investment in space is massive, and it's a growth sector. In the next 20 years, the global space economy will nearly triple in size, reaching a trillion dollars. At the CSA, we're committed to positioning Canadian researchers, entrepreneurs and investors to seize their share of this new, emerging global market. We want to help them contribute to the global economic recovery, while continuing to secure socioeconomic benefits here at home.
In recent months, we've been doing extensive outreach with industry, academia and international counterparts. We've participated in international conferences of the G20 space community and the International Astronautical Congress. Like the rest of the world, we're gearing up for exciting missions to the moon and beyond.
We're proud to have secured Canada's participation in the next large-scale international space collaboration—the lunar gateway program—by contributing our Canadarm3. We're also among eight nations to sign the Artemis Accords a few weeks ago, which we believe will help create a transparent environment for space exploration, science and commercial space activities. We're continuing to support cutting-edge space-exploration technologies, such as artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, health and more, which will be demonstrated on future missions to the lunar surface.
These investments have allowed Canada to play critical roles on internationally led missions, such as OSIRIS-REx, which some of you may have seen in the news recently. We just collected a sample from the surface of an asteroid. Canada's crucial contribution was recognized worldwide, with our expertise ensuring the success of the mission.
In a country as vast as ours, observing earth from space helps us support Canadians, exercise sovereignty and manage our natural resources. Advances in machine learning, big-data analytics and data integration techniques are revolutionizing the field of earth observation at a time when there is more demand for detailed information about our planet.
[Translation]
We are daring to imagine a future where Canadians across the country, from any sector, have unlimited access to easy-to-use digital platforms; where data is turned into information to, for example, issue advance warning for air quality and disaster management; where cities can plan greener infrastructure projects more efficiently; where regulators or industry can detect infrastructure failures; and where farmers can visualize crop conditions and crop yields, predicting market pricing and perhaps leading to better management for anticipated transportation bottlenecks.
[English]
Today we have elements of this vision in place. Our experience with the RADARSAT program, which today is capturing 250,000 radar images of the earth, means we have a great base on which to grow. We'll equip Canada with the data and analytical tools needed for the future.
Like sectors across the planet, the space sector has been impacted by COVID-19 and the measures needed to contain the pandemic. We've reprioritized some of our activities and funding to ensure that industry and academia can continue to innovate and seize opportunities.
Since March, we've doubled short-term financial investments in our science and technology programs, representing an increase of $25 million over existing plans pre-pandemic and a total investment of $52 million over 2 years.
These efforts will benefit up to 90 projects in large, medium and small companies, as well as 12 universities from coast to coast. It will advance promising space technology, and support R and D and the development of innovative concepts, helping develop talent and positioning the sector for success.
Space exploration technologies are at the epicentre of scientific development. Among the many motivations for space exploration, advancing scientific knowledge and understanding is increasingly crucial for our society. Intrinsic value flows from it, and space science is a rich avenue because of the challenges it poses, forcing us to look up and out in completely novel ways. Increasing access to space innovation and research with the new environments and situations, the vast unknowns, that space offers stress tests our systems and beliefs.
Improvements in science inevitably lead to progress in other areas, and as we start employing them wherever science gets used, it generates public good and creates new industries.
I see the time signal. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Through space exploration, we better understand ourselves, our planet and our universe.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for inviting me to speak to the committee today.
I'd like to acknowledge that I'm joining you from the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples today—the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations.
I'll be providing today's remarks primarily in English, but I'll also say a few words in French.
[Translation]
French is my second language. As part of my appointment, I have committed to improving upon my French skills—it's a commitment that I take very seriously.
Both official languages are spoken widely throughout the organization. I am exceptionally proud of the team, 35% of whom are bilingual.
[English]
I have spent seven years, so far, serving the tourism sector, first at a provincial level and now federally.
Never has our country or the world faced such a dire situation across a sector, a sector that employs 1 in 10 Canadians or 1.9 million people in all corners of our country, contributing $44 billion in annual GDP.
While I recognize that my invitation today is to introduce myself and to address my recent appointment as Destination Canada's president and CEO, I feel it is important that I share some of the background of our sector as a whole because it's why, in part, I chose to serve this sector and what compelled me to apply for this position.
My career spans executive leadership roles in strategy and organizational renewal, marketing and communications, corporate social responsibility, operations management and business innovation. I've worked with enterprises in many of Canada's flagship industries, but I found my true calling in tourism.
I joined Destination British Columbia as president and CEO in 2013. At that time, it was a newly formed provincial Crown corporation. I led ground-breaking strategies for tourism development and nationally recognized data-driven performance-marketing programs.
These efforts were done very much in collaboration with Destination Canada, as well as our provincial, regional and city partners, all of us part of team Canada in the tourism space.
[Translation]
When the position of president and CEO came up at Destination Canada, I was compelled to put my name forward, knowing the challenges that lie ahead for the sector. But I would say an even greater motivator are the opportunities at hand.
[English]
I genuinely believe that tourism improves the quality of life for all Canadians. It supports the restaurants and the entertainment we enjoy, the art galleries and museums we visit, the festivals and aquariums we take our kids to, and a huge diversity of local jobs that cannot be exported. From hotel workers to helicopter pilots, tourism is Canada’s biggest employer of young people and women.
Right now the sector is at risk of losing more than half of the jobs in the visitor economy. After five years of growth—and having been poised for a decade more of strong growth—we are forecasting that the sector will not recover to 2019 levels until 2024.
Tourism revenues are uniquely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The summer season represents the core revenue generator for the industry, and it was devastated. The impacts are extremely far-reaching. Consider wonderful events in our social sphere, such as the Calgary Stampede, the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Sunrise Festival in Inuvik and so many others that have been cancelled.
Consider the wider set of sectors that are integral to tourism, including airlines, cruises and hospitality. Those are largely closed or operating at huge losses. These sectors fuel the florist, the farmer, the fisher and the festival-goer. Tourism creates a ripple of economic, socio-cultural and environmental benefits, in communities big and small, all across our nation.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the work at Destination Canada has evolved very quickly. Normally, it is our role to focus primarily on the export side of tourism’s service economy, to lead international marketing, to drive demand and to provide research for industry and government intelligence.
We immediately realized that recovery would begin at a very hyper-local level and made $30 million available for domestic marketing by providing funds to our provincial and territorial partners—who matched it dollar-for-dollar—to maintain our presence and support of local communities.
[Translation]
We have also shifted focus domestically working with our partners.
We know that, in 2019, Canadian travellers injected $40 billion abroad. Our current environment presents a huge opportunity to capture what is typically taken offshore.
[English]
We've continued to supply our industry and our government with timely data and forecasts to support their decision-making and policy-making. Internationally, we are now focused on maintaining our key account relationships to ensure that Canada remains top of mind in our supply chain when international travel can safely resume.
For tourism, recovery presents a national challenge that calls for deep collaboration at all levels of industry and government to fully realize and regain its future potential. Today we can reimagine our industry to be a more competitive sector in future, one that can be an even more powerful force for good for communities and people across our nation.
Thank you.
:
I wasn't there then, but I have heard from people how difficult any cutbacks are.
I will share with you that when we look at our funding over time and at the spending happening around the world, it really is a new space economy, with governments and the private sector, as you've seen, investing heavily in all sorts of areas: space exploration, low-earth orbit, acquiring sources of data. Canada needs to position itself to keep up with that, in our view. That means having sufficient in-house expertise to oversee contracts when we hire services but also sustaining the pace we have set for ourselves internationally.
Canada really punches above our weight. If we think about some of the tables we are invited to, I was recently at the International Astronautical Congress, and for a relatively small country, Canada has a great reputation for what we bring to the table, including our deep expertise in robotics and artificial intelligence. We are a reliable and trusted partner and we want to preserve that, not only for the work we are able to do but also for our economy.
The Canadian space economy generates close to $6 billion a year in revenue, $2.5 in GDP, and employs directly 10,000 people, mostly in STEM jobs, which are, as you know, very high-paying jobs, and then indirectly another 11,000 people.
As I mentioned in my remarks, this is a sector of the economy that's expected to grow. We do worry about spending in the future. If we look at G7 countries, we had been around the middle of the pack and now we're toward the bottom. It is something that I hear a lot about from very dedicated people who work at the agency.
Thank you.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My first question is for Ms. Walden.
I'd like to start by thanking you for speaking French. I wanted to say that because I sincerely appreciate your efforts.
Now, I'm curious as to how satisfied you are with the programs in place.
In June, announced assistance specifically for the Atlantic provinces and Quebec. Of the $30 million earmarked for Quebec, $13.5 million was for small and medium-sized businesses in the tourism sector. As we all know, they have been deeply affected.
In your answer, could you also talk about your level of satisfaction with the wage subsidy program? Should it be expanded to cover a full year? Clearly, tourism businesses make most of their revenue in the summer. Now that the summer is over, the tourism industry has to be ready to respond when the 2021 season starts.
Last, do you think the regional relief and recovery fund measures were adequate?
:
Many thanks, Madam Chair.
First off, Ms. Walden, I want to commend you on your efforts to improve your French. I want to recognize that.
My question has to do with how satisfied you are with the programs in place.
In June, announced millions in funding for the tourism industry, especially in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Of the $30 million earmarked for Quebec, $13.5 million was for small and medium-sized businesses in the tourism sector.
As I see it, what they earn during the summer season is their lifeblood. This season was good, but they have to prepare for next year. Their economic viability is largely dependent on the summer season.
Are the measures in place, especially the wage subsidy program and the regional relief and recovery fund, tailored to the industry's needs?
What could the government do to expand supports for tourism businesses to ensure they survive?
:
Thank you for your question.
[English]
Certainly, there have been a wide variety of programs that have been very beneficial to the tourism industry, with everything from the emergency wage subsidy, which has really allowed many businesses across the country to remain open and strive to be profitable, to what we've seen with the Canada emergency business account, of course, which has been a very helpful credit availability program, and also the commercial rent assistance.
The collection of all these programs is very much targeted at helping small and medium-sized enterprises, which form the vast bulk of the tourism industry, to survive those very lean months. The summer, as you said, had some bright spots, but for most businesses it still remained very difficult, because the capacity that accommodations and restaurants were able to achieve was severely limited by the need for social distancing.
As we look ahead, we can expect that the next four to five months will be extremely difficult for our industry. All our partners across the country are continuing to develop programs that will ensure a very strong restart, both domestically and internationally should borders reopen and our health authorities consider it safe to do so.
Certainly, for Atlantic Canada, there's been a lot of domestic activity, some of which has been strongly supported by federal programs, including Destination Canada. While I think there's almost nothing that could solve every problem our tourism industry is currently experiencing, this broad range of programs that have come from government in general have been very helpful. I think we are hopeful that we can survive these next few months and get a good start, if health conditions permit, come early spring.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
As you mentioned, I'm filling in for my colleague Mr. Masse. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch the presentations, but I'd like to offer my congratulations to both of the appointees.
Certainly, in the region I represent in northwest B.C., tourism is a very important part of our economy. It's a spectacularly beautiful part of the world, which I know Ms. Walden is familiar with.
My question has to do with reconciliation. The COVID-19 crisis has, in many ways, brought together indigenous and non-indigenous communities to safeguard our citizens. In other ways, it has created tensions. We have seen indigenous nations in northwest B.C. announce the closures of their territories to protect their communities, and at times doing that has had impacts on the tourism industry.
I wonder if Ms. Walden could speak to the role of federal leadership, which has been quite silent in these situations, in working through these challenges and helping arrive at scenarios that are beneficial and safe for everyone.
:
Thank you so much for the question.
The tourism ecosystem is a very complex one of different partnerships across our nation and, really, across the world. When I was with Destination British Columbia, which was one of the provincial partners in Team Canada, we very much worked with Destination Canada and our provincial and territorial counterparts to ensure that where we had overlaps, they were productive overlaps.
We are the leading entity for international marketing. We work with our partners to ensure that specific interests of our provincial and territorial demand stimulation programs are represented. Traditionally, those partners would invest in programs that we take internationally, where we have key account relationships in key markets around the world. Those have proven to be extremely beneficial for Canada as a whole, but also for individual regions within Canada.
In terms of where we see our future role, one of the key elements of being competitive as a destination within a world where growth is, or was, very much a part of our future was to ensure that we had a product on the ground that remained competitive, that remained innovative and that was responding to the changing needs of travellers every day. That's where we see a more important strategic role for Destination Canada going forward—taking the demand-side information and market intelligence that we have and helping industry understand where the private and public sector can come together to make our product more competitive on the ground. That will be a new area for us, which we see as critical to our competitiveness as a nation.