Thank you, Mr. Eyking.
I'm going to finish as the chair with a couple of questions. I want to thank you two gentlemen for coming in.
I have a series of questions, but I want to put two to you that have been put to me by a number of people.
First of all, with respect to the R and D tax credit, you mention the size of the program and the generous nature of the program, and I think it's an excellent program. One of the things that has been brought to me--and I want to bring it to you--is this. A company like CAE, a flagship Canadian company based in Montreal, says that one of their challenges is that they perform research that is eligible for the SR and ED tax credit, but perhaps because of the fiscal situation they find--one year or a particular number of years later--that they cannot actually monetize the tax credit. So they find it difficult. That's why they and others have called, before this committee, for making these credits refundable--100% refundable, 50%, 20%--to some extent to allow them to actually use these credits that they are in fact, in their view, eligible for. That's the first question.
The second one is with respect to the ongoing operational costs of big science projects. In the last month I was at the synchrotron in Saskatoon, which was very appreciative of the recent funding in the recent budget and the ongoing funding that's happened from governments over the years. The way they describe it is there's a lot of investment through CFI and others in the infrastructure; there's a lot of investment in human capital through the granting councils. In terms of the operational costs of the facility itself on an ongoing basis, one of the questions I ask is, “Do you need CFI expanded, or do you need perhaps another program to address this?” It's different from the indirect costs, so they'll probably be appearing, or we may in fact go out to that facility as a committee. But that's a second challenge.
I know it's a challenge, and perhaps it's two comments and two suggestions as to what we should be looking at. If either or both of you have any comments on either one of those issues, I'd certainly appreciate it.