Thank you very much, Chair.
I have to say that the more I'm hearing and learning, I'm really surprised at how loosey-goosey the whole system is, especially given that we are talking about potentially of millions of dollars that could be generated for taxpayers. I'm really surprised that we're at this state of affairs. I'm going to get into this a little more in the short time I have.
Again, at the stroke of a pen, literally millions of dollars will either go to a private entity or back to the Canadian taxpayer, and that process is not at all uniform. Notwithstanding stereotypes, I don't necessarily think centralizing or decentralizing, in and of itself, is right or wrong; it depends on the case at hand. Boy, this sure looks to me like a case where we ought to be recentralizing, getting control of the processes, making sure the criteria are the same, and then putting in safeguards to make sure there's no potential abuse, because it's not an area that we traditionally think of in terms of potential conflicts of interest and the sorts of things we deal with at this committee.
What is the current process for determining the criteria for what constitutes IP; and further, the criteria for determining whether it stays in the possession of the taxpayer or goes to private enterprise? If it goes to private enterprise, what are the criteria for determining a licensing fee? If there is to be a licensing fee, what are the criteria for determining how much it will be?
There's that pregnant pause again.
Mr. Coulombe, you probably have the most refined system, I would think.