I could comment on that. Since I was trying to reduce my opening remarks, I chose not to address that, but I'm very glad you raised the question.
I think Canadian control and ownership has been lost in so many of our leading firms like the Incos and the Alcans, and then you go a layer below that and you get the private equity guys taking out the middle players. Now instead of responding as an entrepreneur.... I recall years ago going to Dofasco and speaking with their vice-president of technology about an innovative technology I was working on. They're not there anymore. We have the branch plant manager from the great state of wherever and to connect with that Canadian entity is a whole different game. They have a different agenda. They have probably little or no mandate. Things have to go back to the head office in Atlanta or somewhere like that.
As part of this ecosystem, as entrepreneurs and people developing products and technology, we need to latch on to companies that are larger than we are to help get that market pull and to help get that Canadian prototype demonstrated before we take on the world. The ecosystem is not what it once was. I think this is an issue for us. I recall speaking to an investment banker a handful of years ago about another product and really trying to find out where there were great chemical companies in Canada. He mentioned two and I had already been working with them. At the end of the day, just about all of them had been taken out by private equity interests or were foreign owned.
Generally the R and D is definitely not done in Canada. They're not looking for ways to do things in Canada. Maybe a policy could encourage branch plant companies to work with Canadian companies for the benefit of Canada. That might be helpful. Maybe Industry Canada could encourage Canadian firms—and I don't like this—to find those non-Canadian entities to build their business with. That's kind of the reality we have. I think we're a bit weaker in the innovation ecosystem when we don't have Canadian-focused strategic partners on the business side to build up to.