Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
As you can see, for our side of the table this is a very popular panel. We have a few extra members. Mr. Zimmer, Mr. Kitchen, and Mr. Eglinski have joined us today of their own accord, just out of interest for this file.
We had previous testimony from other witnesses. Before I quote from Dr. Pierre Desrochers, perhaps I'll start with what Mr. Jeneroux said in his release when he introduced his motion, “Geothermal is the most affordable renewable source of energy with a per-kWh cost half of hydroelectric or wind.”
Dr. Desrochers, in his testimony before this committee, said:
...if there were promising technologies, plenty of venture capitalists and investors would invest in those things. I don't believe government funding overall is very significant in terms of funding innovation for promising technologies. If you look at the history of the development of greener technology practices, as soon as something looks really promising, capital will flow. That won't be a problem.
To both witnesses, is government intervention required? If these are good ideas that companies will benefit from, why haven't the private sector companies themselves made these investments already?