Thank you, Mr. McLeod.
I made some allusion to three things that are really difficult processes for a small innovator. One is to get through the door of who might use that product. For instance, I have a challenge of getting through the door of oil sands companies. I have the challenge of getting through their door because they don't understand what I'm talking about, but I usually don't know who's on the other side of the door, so I need somebody who knows who's on the other side of the door to let me through, and that's very difficult, first of all.
When I do find the means of getting through that door, we have a conversation on what it is that I do. The first thing is that it is a technology. Therefore, there needs to be an intellectual property discussion. The discussion quite often breaks down from the standpoint of their not wanting to sign a confidentiality agreement, but they want me to tell them what it is and how I do it. Well, I can't possibly do that, so that's the second challenge.
The third challenge is really in conjunction with that one, and it is that we need to be able to show that we can do what we say we can do. This industry is really interesting, because 3.2 million barrels a day of bitumen are coming out of the province, going through pipelines, and being exported. We're a small company. We want to buy 100 barrels of bitumen. It's next to impossible for me to buy 100 barrels of bitumen, right? It's next to impossible, so I can't even display and show my process without that association with an oil sands producer.
That leads also into SDTC. I'm not pointing at that, I'm not blaming them, and I'm not making any adverse comments. It's just the way it functions. We go to them and we apply for a loan or a funding mechanism. We can apply for up to, in some cases, 50% if we have a partner as well.
Now we have to set aside that money for up to 18 months, right? We set it aside in a bank account, because we have to show them that we have it at the beginning and we have to show them that at end when they approve it 18 months later. We can't possibly do that as a small or medium-sized enterprise. It's impossible. Others can.
These are some of the challenges we have as SMEs, absolutely. SME innovation is even more difficult because, as I pointed out, it could be 10 or 20 years before there's any income generated. As an SME, that's next to impossible to do.
I was fortunate enough that in my previous life I was an accountant, so I sold my practice, I retired nicely, and I took this on and carried on. I was able to do that differently, but it's a challenge. That's the biggest challenge we have as SMEs: we don't have that unlimited bank account that others do.
Those are four issues that really are the biggest challenge for us. I would suggest that the government, within their group of organizations, start looking at helping SME innovators by at least allowing us through your door to your people to say, “Here's what we have.” Once we show that, sign a confidentiality agreement, because you're not commercializing it. You have no interest in it. That's step two done. I could have that done in a day. On the third day I could have a demonstration with NRCan in Devon. I could have a demonstration with anyone, right?
Those mechanisms are there, but it's just a very convoluted process to deal with. I don't think you need to change anything. We just have to evolve and change how we're doing things and be more active with it.
I hope that answers your question, Mr. McLeod.
