It's a question that we face many times.
I think the first thing is to say that public funding, even for studies that are “funded publicly”, does not even cover a half of the cost, so the investigator in the university has to bring added money. Second, unlike many countries, Canada does not fund the time of investigators. I fund my time by doing clinical work on the weekends, and then I use that money to support me to do pro bono work for research, and I'm not the only one. Most clinical scientists in Canada do that.
I think there's a myth that public funding means that's the only money that has led to a discovery. No. That is a key part of it, but it's leveraged multiple times. When we reframe the question in that context, then we make it a different answer.