First of all, I want to thank you both for coming. This is a really interesting committee, and we get a lot of good witnesses.
I think everybody recognizes that we need continued investment in innovation, no matter whether it's oil and gas, or natural resource development. I want to get your thoughts, both of you, on an idea that I also spoke to COSIA about. I'm going to use this as an example, it's kind of unrelated, but it isn't at the same time. The Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation is an organization that does investments. They invest in projects to see renewed vigour in the salmon population in Atlantic Canada, and it was originally funded by a $40-million endowment from the federal government. They can't spend the principal, but they're allowed to invest the proceeds. So the $40 million still belongs to the federal government—they can't touch it—but over the long term it builds.
It started out that they were investing a little bit every year, and now they're doing major investments every year, because they're allowed to reinvest those proceeds. I find with government that when we make investments in these sectors we do them on a very short-term basis. Five years is no time. When we're talking about mining, 10 years is nothing to a mining company. We should be talking about long-term strategic investments in mining and oil and gas.
Do you think that type of model, if it was presented at the right originating amount, would lead to a more stable base of funding over the long term?