Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
To begin with, I would like to present some of the facts contained in the written brief you have before you. I will give you only a brief summary of those facts.
First of all, I'd like to state that at Defence, science and technology is considered a strategic enabler for both the Canadian Forces and for the department itself. In recognition of this role, science and technology is overseen at the ADM level, an ADM of S and T, in this case, who is accountable to both the Chief of Defence Staff and to the deputy minister.
As the departmental chief scientist, the ADM is expected to ensure that an appropriate science and technology perspective is brought to the table during executive level decision-making. The Assistant Deputy Minister provides functional direction across the Department on the direction, delivery and implementation of the Department's science and technology program. The ADM is also the authority for Canada's national and international science and technology collaborations in defence S&T. In fact, the current ADM, Dr. Bob Walker, is in discussions with NATO allies today on cooperation programs, and is unfortunately unable to be with you today.
Cooperation with Canada's defence allies is a critical element of our approach, with some 500 collaborative activities underway at any one time, principally with our NATO allies, as well as with Australia and New Zealand.
The ADM is also the chief executive officer of Defence Research and Development Canada, known as DRDC. DRDC is the primary in-house S and T capability in the department, with other capacity resident at the Royal Military College and in the department's materiel and information management groups. DRDC also maintains a strategic relationship with other federal S and T organizations, most notably with the Communications Research Centre and the National Research Council, both of Industry Canada, which deliver part of the S and T program for Defence, but in the domains that are consistent with their own mandates.
DRDC employs some 1,600 staff, including some 1,200 science workers who are among Canada's best and brightest, and work in seven different sites located all across Canada. Our annual budget is about $350 million, and the Department has also agreed that renewal of DRDC's infrastructure will be a priority, with implementation expected over the course of the coming ten years.
Strategic direction to the Defence Science and Technology Program is provided by the Department's Defence S&T Strategy, which was released by the Deputy Minister and the Chief of the Defence Staff in 2006. Through this strategy, the Department has committed to an investment in S&T amounting to 2 per cent of the Defence budget, a number comparable to that made by Canada's principal allies. The investment is growing in absolute dollars, in step with the growth being realized in the departmental budget as a result of the Canada First Defence Strategy.
From this strategic direction, the ADM of S and T provides annual functional guidance to the department regarding the priorities for the S and T investment. Current priorities include delivering S and T solutions to pressing operational problems related to the CF operation in Afghanistan--for example, counter-IED; helping deliver a single integrated CF command and control system, which is a major project for the Canadian Forces; helping develop the appropriate strategies and policies to recruit, train, and retrain the CF personnel; and ensuring leading-edge technologies are positioned in industry to meet future procurement needs of the CF.
This program comprises some 200 multi-year S and T projects across seven broad areas of military capability. Approximately 40% of the program is aimed at short-term solutions, within five years, and 30% for long-term solutions, more than ten years. Each year approximately one-quarter of our program--20% to 25%--is renewed as projects end and new projects start.
A key feature of our department's approach is that approximately half of our program is delivered to our internal capacity, our DRDC centres, and half is delivered to external capacity. With this approach, DRDC and DND have a long history of success in being able to transition and position the technology industry to be able to satisfy the needs of both the Canadian Forces and the international community.
Finally, I would like to close with a few words regarding public security. Through an agreement between DND and Public Safety Canada, DRDC essentially functions as the S and T arm of public safety. To this end, DRDC coordinates a broad range of public security S and T activities that engage some 20 federal departments, agencies, industries, and academia. The whole program, when we include the partners,
amounts to some $80 million a year.
Within this short timeframe, this is the best I can do to give you a broad overview of what the incentive program is, both for defence and public security.
Merci.