There were some very interesting points from both of you, and I want to thank you for those.
I will refer to two comments. You made one, Dr. Frise, about our country, our money, with respect to Nokia's experiment in Finland and success around the world with respect to cell phones. Dr. Raymont, you made the other, with respect to having had some success in commercializing south of the border.
I've often been tested, and we find ourselves struggling as a committee, to wonder whether it's a question of economy of scale in Canada or whether it's a lack of coordination, as you've suggested, Dr. Raymont, between the various programs that are out there--or might it just be the fact that it is impossible to build the kind of strategy that would see coordination among many of the sectors of industry, simply because the industries, to a large extent, are controlled by decisions made well outside of Canada?
This not a cry to the good old days of nationalism, but to respect the fact that almost every country you've used as an analysis here has leader industries. Their head offices are located in those countries and their decisions are made in those countries to the largest extent. There can be the kinds of synergies in which new products are brought forward. I've often looked at the drug industry to recognize that very few world mandates are coming from them, yet there is research and development; much of it is done in order to correspond to Canada's drug patent laws as far as being able to put forward your product goes.
In relation specifically to energy and to automotive, having worked with and been public relations director for Toyota Canada for a number of years, I find it passing strange that there, while they may not have direct government subsidies and protection of their market, which is a whole other issue, they do deal with the paradigm of the keiretsu, in which one company trades within a variety of other companies. There is a trade relationship that you can't penetrate; it serves very much as if it is almost a strong state-related organization or operation. I don't see how Canada can get around something like that, given that many of the decisions with respect to its automotive industry--and I speak from first-hand experience with my company--were made in other parts of the world.
Specifically on the question of innovation, if a company were to come forward and, for instance, be able to dim those lights by 50%, you wouldn't be able to appreciate the change in terms of the light that it emits. It seems to me that kind of technology could be backed, but the reality for companies that may have those kinds of inventions is that most believe they should in fact commercialize south of the border, where there are capital markets and access to the capital to do these things.
How would you grow or coordinate Canada's economy, given the current economic landscape in terms of who controls what in our key sectors? How do you coordinate such an outcome when decisions and capital markets tend to be outside this country?