Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I want to thank you all for coming.
It was really nice to meet you earlier, Cody, and I thank John for that. I liked your comments and I think you're absolutely right. As Canadians we need to do a better job of tooting our own horn, and recognizing innovation across the different sectors in this country and the strides that have been made to deliver those technologies in a clean, efficient manner. We're always saying we can do better, and that's absolutely right. Every industry has the ability to do better, but we don't do a good enough job of tooting our own horn on the innovation that has already occurred within the industry. The way those industries conduct themselves is definitely world-class, no matter whether it's mining or oil and gas or hydroelectricity. We certainly have a lot to be proud of in this country.
I want to touch really quickly on this. I'm going to give everybody an opportunity to comment.
The first thing Mr. Niven touched on this morning was the gap in trying to get over the hurdle from the initial development of a new technology to commercialization. That's something that you touched on as well, Peter. I think it's certainly a place where there has been a gap.
We announced around $400 million through the venture capital catalyst initiative yesterday, which is supposed to help bridge that gap. That money is supposed to be concentrated on trying to allow businesses to get over that gap, and I recognize it's a step. It's probably not everything that we need to have but it's a step in that direction.
I'm just wondering what you think. Is that the type of initiative we need to see, or do you think you're still not going to be able to utilize it because of the burden that always encompasses small businesses when they're trying to apply for government assistance? I recognize where you're coming from. I've owned my own small businesses and I've worked for other businesses, and I've applied for lots of government funding, and I recognize the tremendous amount of work and effort that has to go into doing that.
Would you like to comment on that?