Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for joining us.
I just want to do a quick paraphrase of an overview from one of our witnesses on Monday. Mr. Ryan Williams, a gentleman from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, mentioned that Canada must double research and development investment by 2030, assert our sovereignty, establish venture capital and be competitive. Canada's digital economy is expanding. Artificial intelligence start-ups, financial technology and other technologies drive hundreds of billions a year, larger than agriculture and larger than forestry. We have almost no protection for it, though. We give our ideas, our intellectual property and our digital sovereignty away. We spend over $10 billion a year in public research funding, yet approximately one-tenth of our patents in Canada come from Canadians. Approximately nine-tenths of our innovation is foreign-owned.
With that in mind, I also want to add that Liberal policies create high taxes, increasing costs, missed opportunities and delays, which damages Canada's ability to attract foreign investment or to keep Canadian investment here domestically.
Mr. O'Neil, how does this impact Canada's ability to promote and grow private sector investment in research and development?