This is quite a big question. It's twofold, because we could spend hours on risk and what it is. If you compare with a major crown project to build some frigates and all that's involved in that, the notion of risk is different from when you're talking about risk related to the government using new technology in that sense.
On the first point in those questions, about risk inherent in the performance of a contractor, a lot of discussions are taking place. The department is committed with key other departments to look at the risk-sharing in some of our major contracts and the cost of our always wanting to take as little risk as possible. By doing so, we put the burden on the contractor for the delivery of large projects, and there is a cost to that.
The fundamental question is how we determine the minimum acceptable risk related to those large projects, and there is work being done on that. The topic today is SMEs, but we have large firms that keep coming back, and we do benchmarking with other countries to see.
Now, related to innovation and technologies tied to SMEs, I keep reading and hearing and finding examples of our Canadian SMEs being leaders in developing innovative technologies, mainly in the area of environment and greening. As such, it's very important for them to have the government. If the government buys those innovations, that is very good marketing for them, to either export or to sell to other businesses that might require them.
My understanding is that as of now there is a whole group, a committee being led by Industry Canada, that is looking at innovative technologies and how we could help advance and promote them within the government and within the country. Unfortunately, I don't have much additional information on this.