I think the jury's still out on the Canada first research excellence fund. Much of the funding, again, is focused on academic research as opposed to commercialization. It's going through the same granting agencies that are disseminating funds. All I can say is that the feedback that I've had from some companies that are trying to access some of the research dollars, or partnering, or helping to fund some of these studies is that they could be interesting, but aren't necessarily solving the problems these companies need help with in the short term.
On May 10th, 2016. See this statement in context.