I will clarify my comments, as I may have been unclear earlier.
This is a $900 million program to be rolled out over a five-year period. It is for research and development in the Canadian aerospace, defence, security and space industries. These industry sectors are subject to ongoing competition from other companies across the globe that also benefit from government support.
In order to support these businesses as we have done in the past, we have set up a new program under which the government will be making refundable contributions to the aerospace industries. This is a more transparent program, because the refunds will be put up on the Internet twice a year. The former program had come under quite a lot of criticism because of its lack of transparency.
Under this new program, refunds of monies allocated to the aerospace and defence industries will be carried out over a shorter period—an average of 15 years, as opposed to 22 or 23 years. In addition, these refunds will be based on the profitability of the individual company, rather than on the success of the initial R&D funding.
We are proud of this program. The fact is a government rarely receives congratulations from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The Canadian taxpayers association says it is a good program, it's transparent, and they're going to be able to follow this.
They are also sure that the investment this government is making for the industry will be profitable for all Canadians.