Yes. I'm very familiar with EDC. We consider them partners, because we're all trying to work together to find the right mechanisms to help the companies find the best point of access to all these resources.
What we find is that because Foresight is an independent non-profit organization, they have trust in coming to us to lay out what's happening in their company so that we can get them to a point that they are ready to approach various organizations for funding.
I would also say that sometimes the folks assessing the companies might not be those most familiar with what's needed in the industry. They're great at supporting the companies, and they're great at reviewing the applications, but when it comes to vetting the companies, sometimes we're surprised at who gets money and who doesn't. It's an interesting position to be in.
What we do differently from EDC—and again, we work with EDC. At EDC we have folks who are all engaged.... They come to us because we help funnel the companies and, for one thing, get them to a place where they're ready for funding. They need the right team; they need the technology.
It's like going to seek funding from a VC. I don't know whether any of you have fundraised from a VC, but you want to almost get them to the level where they have a market technology.
Then it's understanding who really has funding now. As you know, within NRC IRAP there are often two intakes, and that's it, and then money might become available. There's a lot of uncertainty around when funding can be released and how it can be released.
Export Development Canada are great, because they really foster the concept of exporting technologies to other markets. Some of the funding mechanisms actually prefer that we build the market in Canada. In B.C., hydro is 3¢ a kilowatt. We don't really need a lot of energy companies in B.C., but we'd love the company and the technology to stay here and to then export to the best market they can serve.
Every organization is different, but there's still a big gap.