Finance committee  Perhaps I could add to that, Mr. Chairman. Thank you again for your interest. We're happy to send around this document that we prepared two months ago, if the committee so desires. It is on our website already, for those who are interested. Israel is a very interesting case.

Industry committee  As far as I know, this is the current rule. In the case of a $1 billion contract, there have to be some offsets here in Canada, that is to say, some of the products must be manufactured in Canada.

Industry committee  I guess I've got a two-part answer to your question. On the big issue of procurement, it has not passed unnoticed that governments collectively invest huge amounts of money in information and communications technologies. The question is if that purchasing power is being used most

Industry committee  Thank you very much for your question, Mr. Paillé. Regarding programs that involve large companies, that is multinationals like Sikorsky, Boeing or Pratt & Whitney that are generally awarded federal aerospace or defence contracts, they allow these companies to invest in ventu

Industry committee  I'm not sure that I understood the question correctly. The bulk of current venture capital investments, that is between 80% and 90%, are made here in Canada.

Industry committee  Unless I'm wrong, according to the rules that currently govern major defence and aerospace contracts, companies are required to invest in or to subcontract a portion of the work to Canadian companies.

Industry committee  What else could we be doing? I have no shortage of ideas on that. We need a goal. Going back historically, ever since we started collecting statistics, the Canadian venture capital industry has been half the size proportionately of the American--period, full stop. Generally in

Industry committee  I'm coming to that. You have to have a goal first, and then strategy. There's my wish list and our wish list that I put down in my opening remarks, but a number of other discrete steps could be taken. You ask how you define success. Well, one very small indicator of success w

Industry committee  To add my two cents' worth, if I may, to build on what Jean-René has said about intellectual property, universities might have a look at what the incentives are for tenured professors to leave and to come back. I've had over the years some of our members say to me that it's reall

Industry committee  If you look at our recent numbers going back a year and a half or so, you'll see a secular upswing in the proportion of venture capital investments into clean technology. In the last quarter, that was 26% to 28% of all investments. That's the good news. The bad news is that in ac

Industry committee  When you look at the amount of money put into Canadian companies by their venture capital investors compared to the amount of money American venture capital investors put into their companies, it's about one-third.

Industry committee  At the risk of boring you to tears with numbers, if I look at my third-quarter data for 2009, the industry collectively invested $191 million in Canada across the country, and exactly five years ago the industry invested $500 million. That line goes straight down. We invested in

Industry committee  If I could just add a comment to Mr. Marston's question about clean tech and build on what Tom has said, if you look at public policy in the United States and in other jurisdictions, including China and the European Union—but let's focus on the U.S.—the U.S. under the Obama admin

Industry committee  I''m not sure if that question was intended for me, but I will try to answer it. The majority of our venture capital funds have a cash value of under $100 million. So then, this isn't a problem for us right now and it won't be a problem for us tomorrow, or the day after that. Yo

Industry committee  If I could just build on what Jean-René has said, a larger fund gives you better diversification. It also enables you to do what's absolutely critical: you can do the follow-on rounds. Tom can probably address this better than I can. That first investment a fund makes in a compa