Yes, thank you for the question, Madam.
Let me tell a short personal story. When I left school in Silicon Valley, the question was, “Are you going to work for me, or am I going to work for you?” That's what everyone asked, and that question was possible because there were so many different pieces of the system in place there. There was a knowledge base. There was the spirit that you can do it, a kind of Texan six-gun “we can do it“ attitude. There was ready access to venture capital funding. You knew it was just up the road. There were repeated examples of success, so you knew where to find mentorship. There were buyers for when you built your company. There were sellers who would sell you the infrastructure you needed to build that company. What I'm looking for in Canada are locations where those things come together within a specific field and with a specific technology focus. It's that interdisciplinary approach, not only on the technology side, which I spoke to, but as my colleagues mentioned, on the social science side as well. It's the market and the business side. It's that ecosystem.
There's no single answer and that's why I'm here. That's the problem I want to help with and contribute to in Canada: that innovation gap. I want every person leaving school saying, “Hey, am I going to work for you, or are you going to work for me?”