Thank you, James. I appreciate it.
Very simply put, when you talk about SMEs.... James and I are old friends, and we actually worked together during COVID to supply PPE. My company was a company of four or five people and James's was a much larger SME. When you're talking about SMEs, there are going to be different levels of SMEs. You're going to have the basic SMEs, the intermediate SMEs and the senior SMEs, before they become large.
I think an open-mindedness in terms of what's good for the goose not necessarily being good for the gander.... I hate using clichés, but this is something important, Madam Rochefort.
The second one comes back to this idea of timed-out money. You have to dole it out in the sense that we need stuff, so yes, you're on the list, high up, but then, are you innovative?
In my case, I came into this industry because I was making drones and munitions. I came into the food industry because the military had a contract for MREs and 95% of it was U.S.-based. I didn't like that. I rushed to go out there and create a relationship of Canadian food suppliers so the next MRE kit was going to be 95% to 99% Canadian. I'm very proud to say that I've done that. There are a lot of people who have that innovation skill who are SMEs and might need the help at your level at that office to put people together.
One of the big criticisms I had with ISED a long time ago was that if you lose a competition, you lose, but you shouldn't lose. You should say, “You didn't make it, but we'll mention you. You can then go on to some sort of portal somewhere and put your stuff out there. If somebody thinks that your technology is good, they can work with you, and you can come back to us as a joint thing.”
SMEs, I think, require a little love. They require a bit more understanding, because a small enterprise with four or five people might not have all their financials and might not have all their stuff, but they can pull the trick and do the job, as I did.