Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for your tremendous presentations. I wish we had more than the few minutes we have to see what you're doing. You've touched on a number of areas that we're working on as a committee. We're looking at a manufacturing strategy for Canada that will include innovation. It will include using data and statistics as well as our research partners.
In other roles, I sit on the industry, science, and technology committee, which also has interactions with you, and I chair our national caucus for the government for post-secondary education and innovation, but enough about me. I'm very excited to have you here.
I'd like to start off by asking Dr. Pinto questions around the college and community innovation program. The planned spending is $40.7 million in 2016-17 and the polytechnics are a very important part of the innovation ecosystem. Looking at the vision going forward of where that money may be spent, and also in the new five-year strategic plan that NSERC has developed, what role will the polytechnics be playing in terms of moving forward with Canada's innovation agenda?