Finance committee  That shows exactly how opportunities work. To have good governance, all government levels should work together to address the situation. What are the programs that can give, like the companies John was referring to this morning, a more efficient opportunity for them to operate a

Finance committee  Mr. Giguère, I am sorry but it's not very clear. What are you referring to exactly?

Industry committee  One of the things I hark back to is that our particular sector actually is contributing in excess of 12% to the overall business expenditure on research and development in this country. So for us as a small technology group like us compared to some of our colleagues at the table,

Industry committee  It's a tough climate for Canadians to constantly hear that our capital markets are as small as they are. Again, politically it's difficult for us to say we need those international dollars. Does that allow the technology to escape the country? The VC marketplace is only one focu

Industry committee  To that point, Mr. McTeague, one of the things we've been pushing particularly strongly is modernizing the SR and ED tax credit process. That is an immediate opportunity with this current government. I think it would be a terrible loss if we let that 17-year-old tax credit progra

Industry committee  You have to look at the entire life cycle for financing, particularly of health innovation. The life cycle there is 15 to 20 years on average. We have a remarkable bank of 500 small emerging companies in this country, and most of them are dedicated in the health sector. We don't

Industry committee  We like both. The reality is that when you look at the global dynamic of who we're competing against for ideas and being able to retain our ideas, neighbourhoods matter. The people you're walking through a building with, the people you're interacting with, be they from the resea

Industry committee  Your comment is well taken on the Canadian dollar. One of the pre-eminent sales messages we've had as an industry internationally is that the cost of doing business here has been incredibly efficient. We're now, as an industry, having a look at where in fact we will start to see

Industry committee  Mitigate it? I think we have to look at other opportunities that make us attractive to do business with, aside from our know-how, which I think we've established very well internationally. The question really becomes one of the operating environment. Are we being as smart with ou

Industry committee  Yes. The HR side is a challenge regardless of where we are. Technology and ideas move at the press of a button in this world at the moment. The question is what we are doing to inspire our next generation of workers to find a place and a niche for themselves in their regions, in

Industry committee  I would be happy to. It was an issue we had spent a lot of time working on over the last couple of years. It was a mechanism within our Canada tax treaty directly related to limited liability companies whose structures essentially faced a double taxation dynamic when the dollars

Industry committee  First, let me address the issue of R&D funding. Increasingly, I think, Canada has seen a core capacity built, thanks to public research investment in this country. It was well needed, and we need to continue to build it on an ongoing basis; we cannot rest on our laurels, but

Industry committee  In terms of the context of the socio-economic environment, one of the things I find most fascinating about our industry is that Canadians, whom we poll on an annual basis to understand their attitudes and approaches to our technology and their understanding of it, are overwhelmin

Industry committee  One of the things that also need to be addressed is our traditional approach to education, which has been to get children into school and get them focused on choosing a discipline of study. In fact, I think those days are somewhat eroding. The need for multi-disciplinary expertis

Industry committee  Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I'd like to present Joanne Harack, who is the co-chair of our public affairs committee at BIOTECanada. She serves as a senior consultant and has a particular focus on human resources within our indus