Sure. A technology access centre, on average, has between three and 10 employees. They're located in places as remote, let's say, as Grande Prairie and Victoriaville, I believe. Their business model is to offer technical services, small applied research projects, and specialized training on the equipment expertise they have that's different from what the college has, and for that they will be charging business clients.
What it means is that they are responsive, so they do answer the phone and they do say, yes, how can we help? They do want to serve the clients. The one in Grande Prairie is focused on beekeeping, on the health of bees. There are all sorts of different technology access centres, but essentially because they're focused and they're interested in serving clients, they help with the technology de-risking, what you talked about: building a prototype, testing the prototype, understanding what the environment is. They are connected to the local IRAP agents. Sometimes the IRAP agents are there. They're connected to the local economic development organizations, which often are partners in the centre. Then, in effect, you have a lever for bigger impact in the centre.
The Quebec example really was compelling when we looked at it five or eight years ago. While our centres now are on the scale of 1:1, $1 for a $1 investment, the Quebec centres are well past that. As they build a reputation, as they build a network, they're very effective in the local community in terms of having impact.