Mr. Chair, I'll just say, to begin with, that growing cash balances in corporations over the past few years have basically been driven by the fact that there's a huge amount of uncertainty in the global economy. I'm confident that once the U.S. recovery takes hold, and demand in Canada is sustained and companies are confident in that, you will see investments made by these corporations. A corporation acts just like a person would in an uncertain environment: they're hesitant to spend.
In terms of a direct support program, Canada has traditionally focused on indirect spending in the past. Nearly 90% of our R and D support was in indirect spending, whereas in the U.S. 80% was direct.
What we've just argued is that there should be a better balance between indirect and direct spending if you want to encourage innovation and R and D.