Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Those were excellent presentations.
My questions are pretty focused, and I don't know if you can answer them.
I remember that in about 1998 there were certain things the federal government did. They created the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which allowed the infrastructure for hospitals and laboratories and others to link with innovation, etc., and to afford innovation. That was one thing. Then, of course, there was Technology Partnerships Canada, which was created to do that kind of venture capital linking from the laboratory to making it a commercial product. There was another foundation that had been created where the government acted as a venture capitalist for biomedical technologies only. It was all about linking the laboratory to a private company. The government would put in matching funds so that it could become commercialized.
I don't know what happened to that last foundation. I think it was a 10-year thing and it sunsetted in 2008. I don't know where it is or whether it still exists. I've tried to find it everywhere, within Industry Canada or elsewhere, and it's as if it has disappeared.
How does the Canada Foundation for Innovation work? It should help hospitals to take the technology that you're talking about and use it for benefiting Canadians, to take that technology and make it affordable within the hospital and the laboratory systems. That's what CFI was created for.
Is CFI not doing that? That's my first question.
My second question is, what happened to that foundation, which, I know when it sunsetted, had a $10 billion purse? What happened to that? That was going to do some of the things that you talk about. Can you tell me what happened? Does anybody know?