Thank you for the comment and question.
I won't go into strategic choices again, since I have already said enough about that, but there are several points that I could make. One issue I would like to go back to is talent, which is essential. There is the technology, which we have talked about, but there have to be people to create it. The number of people we are training is not very high, as compared to what would be needed. In addition, those few people are immediately hired by companies at the international level. I have students who are approached by multiple companies just a year after starting their doctorates, asking what they will be doing once they get their diplomas. We are in a funny situation.
We have to keep these people. To do that, we have to create an ecosystem of enterprises. I am talking about the budding talent we create here and enterprises we attract. To create new talent, I don't believe the best approach is to ask professors to create an enterprise. If a professor creates a company, they create one and it's over. If the professor leaves to devote themself to their enterprise, then we lose an important channel for students.
Encouraging our students to start their own companies is really a winning formula, to my mind. There are probably some components missing for doing that. In Canada, investors are more timid when it comes to investing in initiatives that call for a long-term investment. The first years, the period when students go from university to a company the size of D-Wave, which we talked about, are critical. I think the national strategy has a role to play in that regard.