Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have here an article that talks about what we're discussing today. It says that taxpayers pour a lot of money into R and D but don't get their money's worth. That's according to a report by Deloitte from a few years back. One of the things the report recommended was coming up with new ways to fund innovation. Public spending on R and D is equivalent to 0.24% of GDP. That's the highest share of any OECD country, second only to South Korea, which invests 0.34%.
And yet Canada is at the back of the pack when it comes to business spending. For every dollar invested by government, businesses spend just $4, the lowest ratio in the OECD. Just to put that in context, Switzerland ranks first, with businesses spending $60.
My question is simple. What can the government do to fix the problem and make up for the lack of investment by the private sector and universities?