Without getting into the discussion that we had over the Quebec agency a little bit, and the department's role, here you're looking at two agencies that are, broadly speaking, part of the Industry Canada portfolio.
I will speak to this briefly, because when FedDev was established last year, we in the Department of Industry had a significant role in establishing the agency, defining its parameters, and kick-starting a few activities. In that sense, we recommended to the government and the minister that IRAP be expanded for southern Ontario. The program is always oversubscribed. It is very positive and very popular with small and medium-sized businesses.
In light of the economic difficulties in southern Ontario, it was felt that this would be a good investment to make and it would also be good for the new agency, because it would permit the agency to get to know a number of the key customers that the IRAP group was dealing with. Minister Goodyear decided to repeat this initiative this year, which is why the reference is in this year's supplementary estimates.