I think we have to think of why global pharmaceutical companies would invest in Canada.
First, we need something special to offer. We're a tiny part, population-wise, of the world. We need special expertise that is better than the U.K., the U.S., Japan or Korea. There are some areas where we are special, and when that happens, they invest in us.
The second part is tax advantages. Tax breaks have made a difference to companies investing through Canada.
The third is that our marketplace is going to remain tiny. We're a small country relative to the world. That is a factor we cannot beat, but we can try to build Canadian expertise by investing heavily in research in the university. That in turn will bring in global pharma. The second factor here is that there is practically no investment from the local Canadian pharmaceutical industry or device industry into research. Our generic industry charges the highest generic prices in the world and does not invest very much in research.
I think this committee needs to look at the behaviour of the generic industry as well, on one hand, and on the other hand at the factors that will attract money from global industry so they divert it from Europe, the U.K., Australia, and the U.S. to us.