Evidence of meeting #176 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
The process is the following. We have a business development team around the country, in all 10 provinces, and they knock on the doors of industry and ask the companies which problems keep them up at night and what they would be able to do if they had some more expertise in their companies. Keep in mind that we are a country of SMEs, and a lot of companies don't have in-house resources for R and D.
When our business development specialists receive some idea of the possible problem, which could lead to commercialization and so on, they go back to the university or college. Because they've been trained to do that matchmaking, they can locate an appropriate professor or school dean. One of their graduate students is then embedded in the company or the not-for-profit.
That requires preparing a project description, which is submitted to the Mitacs research committee. It is sent out for peer review.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Is the committee based at your head office in Toronto?
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
No, our headquarters is still in Vancouver.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
We have offices in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
That's an arm's-length committee of the board of directors, which is made up academics, industry people and government people. It's very important for us to have scientific integrity for the adjudication decisions. They come back with a recommendation, and we try to do this in a time frame that is realistic for industry—around six weeks.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
I would say it's research that has an economic impact.
As a mathematician, I can tell you that very abstract ideas from number theory are used every day when you use your ATM. That spectrum goes in that direction.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
That's an interesting analogy. That's good.
I have a couple of things. First of all, the majority of your projects are based in Ontario and Quebec, from what I understand, and there are very few in the Prairies. I'm curious as to why that would be. There's nothing in the north either, and I'm curious as to why that would be.
I largely want to talk to you about.... The last budget supported the Naylor report to an extent, but it didn't support the research support funding. I imagine the research support funding is something that Mitacs in particular would be supportive of funding, perhaps because research support funding has an impact on the graduate students who access your funding.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
To your first comment, actually B.C. does extremely well. It does well beyond its per capita, because we started in B.C. We also have a good presence in Alberta. We could do more. Manitoba has increased its funding. We depend on the federal-provincial partnership in our model, so we have to get the appropriate buy-in from the provinces.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
But the committee ends up approving who applies. I don't mean this to be a criticism of your program, but is there more education we need to do in the Prairies to encourage applications?
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
I think there's good uptake, but there are always financial constraints. We're always trying to get the maximum number impact over delivering beyond our contract. We also understand that some of the provinces have gone through hard times, and we work with them to find leveraging that can make this work.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
That's particularly in Alberta, but I wanted to get your comment on the impact on the research support funding.
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
Of course nothing can happen without fundamental research. It's a knowledge-based economy. Knowledge is created through fundamental research. Then this research has an impact, and how we make that have an impact on the economy is very important.
In the end, we want to have an impact on GDP with the return on investment, but we understand why government supports research. It's for our prosperity. That full spectrum and story comes from some fundamental research, and then when applied, ultimately commercialization. Absolutely my—
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
You're still keeping the lights on, to an extent. The researchers who are doing projects are still being funded.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
What could be funded if the research support fund were funded?
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
Is the research support fund the one for university overhead costs?
Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs
It is a big issue at our post-secondary institutions. I know that compared to other jurisdictions.... For example, in the United States, the overheads on the grants are much larger and they go to support facilities, which is very important to the labs. Absolutely you need to have the equipment, talent and pathways to industry to have an economic impact.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
Thanks. I don't have a lot of time, and I do want to go quickly to D-Wave.
Mr. Wall, you mentioned the superclusters and the role that you in particular are playing. When it comes to the superclusters, I couldn't help but notice that you talked a lot in the past tense—i.e., you “wanted” this, you “needed” this. I'm curious to know where that's at. The announcement was a year ago. We haven't seen a lot of movement yet in terms of funds. I'm curious to know what you're hearing and where your plans are. Maybe you have more information than the minister's telling me about certain things.
Executive Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, D-Wave Systems Inc.
First off, I want to say that we're strong supporters of Mitacs. They're working with us and helping us commercialize a lot of technology. I wanted to mention that.
As far as the supercluster goes, we are reaching, I hope very soon, a final contribution agreement from the government to fund the supercluster. I know that this negotiation is happening.
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
It's been a year, though. You're still waiting for it.
Executive Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, D-Wave Systems Inc.
Yes. That was from the announcement. The agreement with the government has been under way since early in the summertime. Nonetheless—
Edmonton Riverbend, CPC
As a member of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, is there anything I can do to help move that along?