Government Operations committee  From our perspective, we already service the oil and gas industry, so we have a well-known reputation in oil and gas. To break into the defence and security market, especially on export...if a Canadian company cannot sell their own products, which the Canadian government helped to develop, back to the Canadian government, this is viewed by foreign buyers that there's something fundamentally wrong with either the company or the technology.

Government Operations committee  In our development cycle we've had an awful lot of interaction with the federal government, including the coast guard and navy, through the prototyping process. So we were all very familiar with how the federal government works, and with the people on the ground there's absolutely no problem.

Government Operations committee  Yes, absolutely. The National Research Council is one of the licence holders for the technology that we exploit. One thing we have seen, though, is that the ability of the National Research Council to keep the flywheel of innovation going is starting to slow down. That's about the only thing I would note in the day-to-day relationships we have, which is something we're looking at with a little bit of concern.

Government Operations committee  Our experience is very similar. We found out through an industry association that we're part of in Newfoundland—OceansAdvance—that this call for proposals had come through, and then going onto the buy and sell...we became more aware of the website there. We're very familiar with MERX, for instance, but not with that other website.

Government Operations committee  One of the things I really like about the CICP program is that they tag innovation to the technology readiness scale, which is something that we commonly use, even within our own company, to determine whether technology is ready for commercialization or not. It was very clear where it tagged.

Government Operations committee  The best example would be something that actually happened in the course of this year. We were not screened out of CICP, but we were screened out of an opportunity with the Canadian Commercial Corporation to sell a similar type of product to a foreign government. At the same time, we were accepted by Exxon Mobil as a supplier for essentially the same technology within their procurement system, and as well by a major defence contractor in Germany to supply the German navy.

Government Operations committee  Our company has experienced, mostly through the previous lifestyles of the people in it, dealing with government procurement and picking the essential information out of calls for proposals. In the criteria that were published it was very easy for us to make an assessment quickly as to whether or not we qualified for the program and what our chances of success would be.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. I'll just give a quick description of VMT and our experience with the CICP program. Virtual Marine Technology is Canada's largest marine simulation company. We enable our customers to implement enhanced, immersive, safe, and cost-effective training environments, mainly to improve safety on board ships and offshore structures.