I think, Mr. Chair, we did identify that the organizations involved assessed whether there was a need and assessed the gap. I think it is important to remember this was a $400 million disbursement on the part of the federal government that was not an expenditure. It does not hit the bottom line of the government. It's considered to be an investment.
It's important to monitor whether that investment is maintaining its value. It's difficult to do that because the underlying investments are start-up companies, innovative companies, and companies that have not yet commercialized the ideas. It's going to take a while to be able to identify whether the program is successful or not.
I think one of the reasons we wanted to bring this to the attention of Parliament is that sometimes these programs can be overlooked because it was not an expense. It was not something that hit the bottom line of the government. It's an investment. You can't determine whether that investment is going to have an appropriate return for maybe 10 years because of the types of investments underlying it.
What are the indications along the way about whether this program is doing what it's supposed to be doing and whether these companies are able to bring their innovative ideas to research and development and then to commercialization? We need to make sure it is going result in a vibrant venture capital ecosystem in Canada. It's the type of program that can be too easily have nobody paying any attention to it, and that's why we wanted to bring it to the attention of Parliament.