Thanks for the question, Cheryl.
When we speak about the technology valley of death, we're talking about the gap that exists between funding that supports research and then somehow bridging that to actually exploiting commercial value out of the technology: bringing it to market, selling it within Canada, and as well exporting it. For many years in Canada, there was simply no funding mechanism that would help a company make that leap from research to commercialization.
In the last few years, the government has introduced PSPC's build in canada innovation program, which is specifically geared toward taking high-maturity technologies and providing funding so that federal agencies can try that Canadian technology at very little risk. The funding comes from PSPC. There's a match between a company with the new technology and a federal department, and the federal department acquires the technology through PSPC funding and then is able to test that technology. We've been able to use that program with such groups as the RCMP and the Canadian Department of National Defence to get them to try some of the new radiation detection technologies that we've developed at Bubble Tech.
That is a single program, which is certainly a move in the right direction. It takes you to that first sale, but doesn't really follow through or provide long-term support for subsequent sales.
I think in Canada one of the difficulties has always been—particularly in our sector, defence and security—that we're obviously very heavily involved with many other NATO allies, and sometimes it's easy to just tag along with what other people are buying without taking a good, hard look at home-grown technologies that may be best in class and need that opportunity to get utilized by a customer in the market.
One thing we would love to see is just more opportunities where the Canadian government is really taking a good, hard look at Canadian technologies, and, where the merit is there, where the technology is solid, to really be a leader by adopting the technology and being able to demonstrate that Canadian technology in real-field applications.
For us, when we go to export overseas, one of the first questions we receive from any other foreign government is who else is using this? Is your own government using this? For many years we would have to say, well, the Americans are using it, or various groups in Europe are using it, but it's a difficult position to be in. You'd like to be able to say that your own government has selected your equipment and can provide references. I think that's one of the key things the government can do in the future.