I mentioned before that access to capital is a huge issue. Dr. Smith's comment about potential government guarantees for some portion of the risk that might reduce the risk adversity, I think is a good suggestion.
A second comment I would make is that whenever the federal government wants to do something to promote venture capital, it looks at BDO. I am not a supporter of that. BDO's activities in this city are nominal. From our perspective, it doesn't solve very much.
In terms of commercialization, many of the inducements that happen at an academic level take the form of matching funds. The mechanisms for matching funds are not something I support either. From our perspective, we're a very vibrant technology community. But we can count the number of biotech and medical device companies on the fingers of two hands, so that reduces the number of players we can work with.
If you live in downtown Toronto, a much larger city, there's an infinitely greater number of marriages that are possible. There is a geographic relationship that exists between science organizations and commercializers. We don't have the same critical mass. When you give a matching grant related to product development or industry relationships to the University of Toronto, it's not nearly the same kind of challenge as it is in Halifax, where there may not be the same number of partners. It's harder to do. So I'm not a proponent of matching funds.
As a hospital, we are often at a disadvantage to our university partners, which are usually the recipients predominantly of the granting council. Funding goes directly to a university. If hospitals participate, they receive it via a university. We're very often forced to work through conduits. Again, if you saw my presentation, I feel we can be a little more nimble and responsive to partners we want to work with in industry if we don't have to work through intermediaries.
The discussion this morning around the Waterloo scenario, free intellectual property, has tremendous potential to get us away from the bureaucracy surrounding IP. With all due respect to many of my colleagues, grown men weep in getting IP licences from the federal government.
The NRC here in the city--Dr. Smith's shop--has a reputation for being one of the most nimble shops in the country. It has a tremendous reputation. But there are many, many other government departments, and that would include the one you saw this morning at the Public Health Agency, where getting a patent licence is not an insignificant exercise. Many industry partners have to work very long and hard to do that.
Those comments about freedom of intellectual property are something that should be addressed by the committee.