The deputy minister is present and may be able to answer the question.
The document provided by the Department of Finance talks about innovating to build a better Canada. Since the creation of the Connect to Innovate program in 2016, the federal government has leveraged $554 million from the private sector and other levels of government, which has funded 180 projects to date.
Is the private sector making a concrete contribution to this? Has it injected new money into this area? What are we waiting for to get to the $8 billion that is required? Will the federal government have to make investments to get the private sector to do the same?