I thought I'd give the committee a brief overview of our organization. We are an infectious disease research and vaccine development organization. We're part of the University of Saskatchewan. We were established just over 40 years ago, with a partnership between the western provinces and an original mandate to serve the agricultural sector. We have since expanded to the human health sector.
We have approximately $200 million worth of infectious disease research infrastructure, which makes us one of the most advanced containment level labs in the world. The Government of Canada has invested heavily in that infrastructure.
Our accomplishments include the development of a number of vaccines for animal health and technologies to protect humans from infectious diseases, most of which were the first of their kind in the world. To build on this we are planning pilot-scale, good manufacturing practice-compliant manufacturing units, which are required to make vaccines. We urge the government to assist in filling this critical gap to help all of Canada's technologies to reach the marketplace.