First of all, the IFIT program is one of the programs that has been very successful in the industry. I understand your point of view regarding the proportion of funded projects, but this program offers interesting funding ratios and compels the industry to participate. The difficulty for our colleagues at Natural Resources Canada lies in the volume of requests and the number of experts needed to analyze them and demonstrate their relevance in political and economic terms, among others. We can’t keep up. Why? Because there is a shortage of those rare individuals who understand economics, business and science equally well. So there is important work to be done in terms of regionalization and prioritization.
Let’s be clear: The industry is suffering and it submits many requests, when it can, but its willingness to take risks and make capital investments is no longer there. We must therefore direct the programs toward what can help it immediately and adjust the criteria a bit, while remaining relevant on a regional and economic level.