Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome to the witnesses.
My first question centres around Impact Canada initiatives. I believe it's for the Department of Industry, but if there is someone else who wants to jump in, please do.
This initiative is a whole-of-government approach, led by the Privy Council Office. It uses a challenge approach to funding to encourage innovators to participate in solving collective challenges, and issues “prizes for whoever can first and most effectively find a solution to a defined problem, and/or mak[es] use of structured, open competitions to solicit proposals to fund the best ideas with the potential to solve thematic problems.”
The clean-technology stream announced in budget 2017 is one of the first program streams of this initiative. It was scheduled to conclude in March of 2021, but was extended into 2022, obviously, because of the impact of COVID.
My question is, to what extent did the clean-technology stream of the Impact Canada initiative further investment in and development of clean-tech enterprises in Canada?