Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on the subject.
Actually, the reason we didn't come to the committee with specific numbers in mind is that we don't see this as being an issue of money being provided to an industry to do something. We view it completely differently. What we're saying is that space provides value to all Canadians in a plethora of ways: in terms of security, in terms of environmental protection, in terms of helping our industry, our agriculture, and enabling communications.
What we're saying is that it's up to the government, along with the stakeholders of all the various government departments and the interested stakeholders on a national basis, to ask what we want to do. You start with that first; then you ask what it might cost. Clearly, from a finance committee perspective, eventually you need to address that, but it's way too early in the process to do it.
What we know is that the investment Canada has made over the last 40 years in space has had dramatic effects on the value of life of Canadian citizens and has developed a world-beating industry where, from my own company's perspective, we export 90% of everything we make and create high-paying, high-value jobs.
The truth of it is, though, that even if I weren't here representing the industry, what I would say is that Canada has lost its way in terms of defining a national space plan: what does Canada need and what sort of programs does it need to put in place? What would come from that is funding.
It would be, I think, foolish of me to say it ought to be x, or y, or z, because I don't know what the stakeholders would determine. I have, as we all have, lots of ideas about how we could make this country safer and healthier and improve the well-being of all of us. If we implemented all of my ideas, we'd spend billions of dollars. Clearly, that's probably inappropriate and Canada can't afford to do it. But we're willing to engage in a dialogue among all the stakeholders and put forward suggestions for potential programs and hopefully from that do something that is within the affordability envelope of Canada.