Industry committee  They don't do most of their R and D here, but they certainly do some here. I think they've recognized that there are certain researchers with certain capabilities that are very strong, and they put work where they can get the best work done.

Industry committee  Sure. One of the best metal-forming research groups in the world is at the University of Waterloo. One of the best diesel engine research groups in the world is at the University of Windsor. The auto theft project at the University of Manitoba is a very strong group of researchers who have a much stronger understanding of youth auto crime than is generally the case in social science research around the world.

Industry committee  Well, again, I think it's important that we recognize the scale of the auto industry and the kind of investment that is going to actually make an impact. If I may, to be candid, the general scale of Canadian research activities on this kind of thing is actually pretty small beans on the world scale.

Industry committee  The technical problems around hydrogen are daunting. They're being worked on in many locales around the world. I think Canada has a contribution to make on that score, and I think that many of our efforts to date have been laudable. I must admit that it's going to be a very long-term battle.

Industry committee  I think that's a very good question, Ms. Nash. In my experience and in my view, the auto companies are really global enterprises and they go wherever they can find the best knowledge. That's why Canadian researchers have developed such a strong reputation in certain kinds of technologies and certain kinds of research.

Industry committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Carrie. In a nutshell, when we started AUTO21, we took a very straightforward view. I'm an engineer. I believe in simple models because they generally work best. We as a group—there were a large number of industry people, including some folks from General Motors and the other OEMs, the major parts companies, as well as Canada's leading universities—took an approach right off the bat that the role of a university is to create knowledge and educate people.

Industry committee  Thank you very much for the question. Yes, indeed, we are working on energy-efficient solutions for the automobile. One of the most important ways of decreasing the energy consumption of a car is to decrease the weight of a car. AUTO21 has a very large portfolio of work on lightweight materials.

Industry committee  Well, I think there are a number of reasons. One is that Canada's industry does not have the scale of many of the other larger countries. But that argument begins to fall apart when you start looking at a country like Sweden, for instance, which is a much smaller country than Canada, and yet Swedish companies typically invest much more heavily in research and development than ours do.

Industry committee  Thank you very much. I won't reiterate the mission of the NCE program, I'll just get right into it. The challenges facing AUTO21 are the same as those facing Canada's automotive sector. We have to figure out how to maximize innovation within the available budget to keep our country competitive and keep people employed, and we have to figure out how to do this quickly enough to respond to very rapidly changing market forces and conditions.

Industry committee  They certainly do in AUTO21. Our federal grant—and let me say I think it's a superb program, that the NCE program is absolutely great—is $5.8 million per year, which, when it was awarded in 2001, was 96% of what we asked for. So we were absolutely thrilled to get it. At the time, industry was committing $2.99 million of the funding to our suite of research projects.

Industry committee  I would agree with that, and perhaps even go further. In my view, what the government should do is determine, in consultation with key stakeholders, what the goals of the enterprise are. What's the outcome that we want to achieve? I would suggest that it's a workforce that is able to be agile, fast, high-quality, and reliable, and that we need to achieve an economy that is competitive, strong, and agile.

Industry committee  Very briefly on Finland, Finland has 5.6 million people who speak a language nobody else speaks. They are really isolated. They are economically dominated by huge countries all around them. Their weather is even crummier than ours. But they've done really well because they just decided to do it.

Industry committee  Frankly, I don't know why that clause is there, and I don't know within whose control it exists. I'd like to know that, and I'll try to find out. But in terms of other issues, I would say that in general Canadian programs—not just the NCE program—take a long time to decide to do something.

Industry committee  Well, that's right. I think that's likely, and it may even be that they could leave the country for better funding elsewhere.

Industry committee  Again, I'm afraid I'm not an expert in policy abroad, but from what I see, they seem to have a systemic approach to everything. I had a minute with the former prime minister of Finland in Kyoto a couple of years ago at a conference, and I asked, how did you transform Nokia from a company that made tires in 1988 to the world's leading cell phone company now?