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Results: 1 - 15 of 1634
View Joe Daniel Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, witnesses, for being here.
It's certainly been a very interesting discussion.
I'd like to pick up on one of the points that I think some of you have already raised. It's to do with small businesses and IP. I think we've invested a lot of money into research and a number of good ideas are sitting on the shelf without being promoted, etc. Some very intelligent Ph.D.s having raised that.
How can this government do something to assist small and medium-sized business in protecting their IP and making sure that their IP is protected, because that's a fundamental step in their progressing to getting into bigger companies and bigger organizations, etc. How can industries like Bombardier and some of the bigger companies assist some small companies in going through this process of getting the IP established so they can move forward?
Maybe we can start with Madam Hutchinson, since you're government relations.
Kelly Hutchinson
View Kelly Hutchinson Profile
Kelly Hutchinson
2015-06-16 12:35
From an IP perspective, you're right in speaking to the collaboration between industries. If you're working, uniting large and small companies is really the first step in being able to help them bridge that gap and get over that hurdle when it comes to challenges.
When it comes to this particular subject matter of IP and small businesses, I would have to hand this over to Mr. Gupta for a response. But thank you very much for asking me a question on my first attendance at one of these meetings and on my birthday.
Karna Gupta
View Karna Gupta Profile
Karna Gupta
2015-06-16 12:36
Intellectual property is the most valuable asset the company would have. We need to have an IP regime that is not only on par with the global scale but in fact better. You can look at any small Canadian company, and I'll use myself as an example. I used to be CEO of Certicom. I had 500 intellectual properties filed globally. My last filing used to be Canada just because the regime here took much longer to get it processed and IP-protected.
Enforcing is also very critical. If you cannot enforce IP, it is absolutely useless. The courts and the practices need to be up to snuff at a global standard to make sure that our companies can in fact enforce the intellectual property they have. I would submit to you that most Canadian small companies, when they take a larger company to court on IP infringement, actually do so in the United States because often the courts move a lot faster there.
Things are changing. I think we have had this discussion before in a different panel. I think things are improving and the government is paying a lot more attention, but intellectual property is the most critical asset for our companies.
View Joe Daniel Profile
CPC (ON)
I agree fully with that, but the question is how this government can help small businesses make sure they secure the IP that will allow them to actually get to the next level of growing their businesses, getting more jobs, doing all the things that would make that possible.
Karna Gupta
View Karna Gupta Profile
Karna Gupta
2015-06-16 12:37
I'll give you two specific examples. One is that I think our intellectual property regime needs to be a lot more nimble and faster for the Canadian companies to process. Second, one of the comments we put forward in our budget submission was that if I was a small business and I generated $2 of revenue—$1 from regular business and $1 from selling intellectual property—that revenue should be taxed at a lower rate to create incentives for our companies to promote and commercialize the intellectual property they have, not only locally but globally. That is a policy instrument we could use to promote greater use of our intellectual property.
That's very simple. The U.K. is already going down this path on intellectual property. They're seeing a lot more SMEs using intellectual property for commercial purposes, so all of the development now is not going to esoteric IP protection of all kinds. They're creating IP that is more relevant to the business use.
I'll use the example of mathematics. Certicom's IP was all in encryption. Your BlackBerry used to be encrypted by us and NSA's encryption was done by us. Mathematics is not protectable. Mathematics is public property. The IP is done by protecting how you implement process and all of that, so you create a fence around how it is used. If that is done right and I generate revenue from it, I should be incented. I'm creating jobs. I'm giving more work to the local graduates. I'm hiring more locally from local universities. There is a very direct linkage between how we treat IP and business outcomes.
Walter Di Bartolomeo
View Walter Di Bartolomeo Profile
Walter Di Bartolomeo
2015-06-16 12:39
I'll add a couple of things. We had a quick discussion around CARIC. The IP framework around that collaborative network is really links to domains of expertise. If we do a collaborative project with a university and a small or medium enterprise, then for the use in gas turbine engines really Pratt & Whitney Canada would look to retain that IP. But for non-competitive areas, really the subject matter expert, the small or medium enterprise, could exploit that. In order for that to be done, the level of investment and the repartition of risk should be commensurate with what an OEM would put in. If Bombardier is going to put in a fair number of dollars, we would expect the small or medium enterprise to do the same.
What the government could do is to support small and medium enterprises to a level that's commensurate in that respect. That allows a sharing of that IP that's in line with the risk being taken. Then they could exploit it beyond the specific domains of interest of that OEM. For Bombardier, that would be aircraft. For Bell Helicopter, it would be helicopters. For Pratt & Whitney, it would be gas turbine engines. It could be used in other parallel industries. It could then go ahead and do that. I think that's a framework that has worked well.
View Joe Daniel Profile
CPC (ON)
Let me phrase my question slightly differently. Should the government provide funding for small businesses to secure their IP with the hope of actually getting that money back once they've taken that IP and developed their business?
Walter Di Bartolomeo
View Walter Di Bartolomeo Profile
Walter Di Bartolomeo
2015-06-16 12:41
I would say it's more to develop the IP. The securing of IP through the IP protection capabilities is probably sufficient. It's really to develop the IP. You have to develop that IP.
Mark Butler
View Mark Butler Profile
Mark Butler
2015-06-16 8:59
Bonjour. Chair, Vice-Chairs, and members, thank you very much for this opportunity.
The Ecology Action Centre is not as big or as old as Ducks Unlimited; however, we're at respectable middle age. We started in 1971. We have 4,000 members. We're based in Nova Scotia, but we work across Canada. This morning I'd like to provide you with some examples of how the Ecology Action Centre works with the private sector, followed by some observations in that regard.
I do have a warning. I read this out to my son this morning and he said, “Good, but dull.”
Voices: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Butler: The EAC began in 1971. One of our first projects was paper recycling. We bought a little cube van and picked up newspapers. Today, recycling is big business. The Canadian Association of Recycling Industries estimates that 34,000 people are directly employed in recycling. The moral of the story is that if you want tomorrow's business ideas, check out what environmental groups are doing today.
Another early project of ours, which continues today, is that of selling Christmas trees grown without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. This is both a fundraiser and an awareness raiser. Currently, we partner with Christmas tree grower Kevin Veinotte of Lunenburg County and sell approximately 450 trees each December.
In 2005, the Ecology Action Centre, along with other environmental groups, initiated the Colin Stewart Forest Forum. To quote from a provincial report from several years ago:
The Colin Stewart Forest Forum is a protected areas planning process initiated by leading...ENGOs...and the four largest forestry companies operating in Nova Scotia. It formed to resolve conflict among ENGOs and the forestry industry over the future of Nova Scotia’s remaining wilderness....
The industry was looking for more certainty around wood supply and the environmental groups for more certainty around land protection. It worked.
We also partner with the private sector to promote marine conservation and, in particular, better fishing practices. We are a member of SeaChoice, a Canada-wide program that helps businesses and consumers make choices to support the health of marine ecosystems. SeaChoice works closely with seafood suppliers, retailers, and restaurateurs across Canada to help them and consumers purchase sustainably caught seafood.
We also helped launch the Off the Hook Community Supported Fishery. You may have heard of community supported agriculture, or CSA. This is the same thing, but it's for fish, not vegetables. Off the Hook works to connect a co-operative of small-scale bottom-hook-and-line groundfish fishermen from the Bay of Fundy with consumers in Halifax.
Not surprisingly, the Ecology Action Centre is active on mitigating and adapting to the impact of a changing climate and a warming world. In this regard, we have partnered with the Insurance Bureau of Canada and individual insurance companies such as Intact Insurance.
The industry of course has extensive and detailed data on climate impact. To quote from an article in the Financial Post from November 2011:
“What is causing it [climate change] is not our area of expertise but we agree the climate is changing,” says Michael Tremblay, director of research with the Insurance Bureau, which says severe-storm-related water damage now comprises 44% of claims compared to just 22% in 1992.
The insurance industry has a saying: water is the new fire.
The private sector is often the funder of environmental work. The TD friends of the environment program and RBC's blue water project come to mind.
At the Ecology Action Centre, many of our supporters are small to mid-sized businesses. We have 10 companies that are sustainability allies, and they range from a real estate company to a pizzeria, to a landscaper, to a brewery. We are also a member of One Percent for the Planet.
There are other examples, which I have omitted in the interest of time. Following are a few observations, and again, they are by no means inclusive.
The first observation is that we are neither a cheerleader for nor a detractor of the private sector; perhaps “agnostic” is the right word. As described, we work closely with the private sector. Certain segments of the private sector are showing increased leadership on environmental matters. At the same time, we spend a considerable amount of time trying to address and remedy the actions of the private sector, actions that are harming or threatening the environment.
EAC's engagement and partnership with the private sector are increasing, likely due partly to a growth in the capacity and the maturity of our organization, but I think it's also a reflection of external independent factors, a few in particular.
First, the private sector is simply showing more leadership on environmental matters, both because it is good for business and because business people are people and they get that it is the right thing to do.
Second, the private sector is showing more leadership because government isn't. There is a vacuum, and the private sector, along with NGOs and individuals, is trying to fill it.
Third, progress is achieved through the private sector, government, and citizens working together. As a parent, I don't expect government to leave child safety to the discretion of the private sector, nor would I expect protection of the environment to be left up to the private sector alone. The growth of the renewable energy industry is a great example of how the government and the private sector can work together globally. The power of the markets, certain policies of the government, and the application of technology are a powerful combination.
Fourth and last, the debate is often framed in terms of a private remedy versus a state or public remedy. Increasingly we are seeing the integration of market and social goals in the form of social enterprises. A social enterprise is defined as a business created to further a social purpose in a financially sustainable manner.
Thank you. I look forward to taking any of your questions.
View Stella Ambler Profile
CPC (ON)
I was particularly interested in the second point you made about the types of partnerships you have, and voluntary conservation offset, in particular the habitat banking.
I have two questions on that.
In your experience, is it only the large private sector companies that can afford to do this kind of thing? Are there any SMEs that might participate in these types of initiatives and projects?
With regard to my second question, you mentioned pre-banking, doing this habitat conservation banking before the other project is completed. Can you tell us how that works?
James Fortune
View James Fortune Profile
James Fortune
2015-06-16 9:45
The first question was, do we have small and medium-sized enterprises involved? I wouldn't say in the voluntary offset. It's not a specific initiative, with small business saying they want to do this to offset.
To your point about the social licence and being a responsible corporation, they're supporting us and we are conserving habitat. They're not looking for acres to broadcast or to claim, or anything like that. They're doing it to be a good corporate citizen.
View Stella Ambler Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
If I could echo Mr. Carrie's comments about the Earth Rangers to you, Ms. Barocas, I was so impressed when you were talking even about just the three examples. I remembered about five or six years ago that I had been to visit the headquarters with the late Honourable Jim Flaherty, who was a big supporter, which I think was because of the family component. When we, at this committee, did our study of the national conservation plan to inform the minister about what the committee thought should be included in the plan, children and youth were a top priority, as was urban conservation. I think you've done a really great job of putting those two things together towards your goal of conservation and raising a new generation of young people who care about the environment. I wanted to thank you for that.
If I could go back to CVC, I'd like to ask Terri and Mike how these partnerships come about. For example, you mentioned UPS being a six-figure donor and very involved in tree planting. You talked about corporate grants and cash donations from RBC, TD Friends of the Environment, Brookfield Homes, Scotiabank, and Dufferin Aggregates. These are all very large companies. If your focus is on large companies, how could smaller and medium-sized enterprises also consider these programs? How could they manage the scale of them to fit a smaller business? Do you approach them? Who makes the first approach to whom?
For the Lakeview waterfront connection, for example, you mentioned you were looking for corporate partners. Would you just start with those big companies? Are they the low-hanging fruit and then you move to smaller ones? How does it all get started? Do they come to you or do you go to them?
Terri LeRoux
View Terri LeRoux Profile
Terri LeRoux
2015-06-11 10:13
Thank you.
Yes, it's a combination of approaches and efforts that we take. With the larger companies we do quite extensive prospect research to understand their values, their motivations, their history of giving, and then generally the initial approach happens either by me or another member of senior management. We'll initially attempt to cultivate that relationship. Very often, as well, the volunteer members of the foundation's board are instrumental in forming those relationships.
To your point about the small to medium-sized organizations, absolutely. In fact, we have more small to medium-sized private sector partners than we do the large ones. They tend to be scaled also to the size of the project and to the community that they exist within. Again, speaking to the point about local impact and companies wanting to have local impact, we have some incredible projects. For example, a trail project in the Orangeville area has raised well over $2 million, with the majority of that coming from very small, local, family-based businesses.
View Lawrence Toet Profile
CPC (MB)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our guests today. This has been very interesting.
I want to go back to the private sector engagement and some of the talk of the tensions that can sometimes exist in that relationship due to donors having a sense that the relationship may not be a positive one. I want to talk about what I would see as probably an inverse aspect to that, and that's your opportunity to work with local businesses.
Ms. LeRoux, you talked about the program in the Orangeville area, with many smaller and medium-sized businesses getting involved in that program. Are you finding that through those opportunities you have the ability to create a greater influence within that business community, to create more of a stewardship sense within their corporate structure, that there's an educational opportunity, and that there's growth in that through those types of processes?
Terri LeRoux
View Terri LeRoux Profile
Terri LeRoux
2015-06-11 10:20
Absolutely. In fact, one of our ultimate motivations is always to instill that appreciation and understanding in anyone we work with at any level—volunteers, donors, business owners—because it's really their engagement and their true involvement that's going to make the long-term difference. Through the achievement of the short-term goals and outcomes we have with projects and programs, we're always looking to the future and what those relationships will mean.
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