Health committee  I'm not aware of, and can't answer the question about all of the data that's needed for the vaccine research development. Maybe our VIDO colleagues could address that. I would say that the PHAC and the provincial health labs have been working together for a number of years and have created frameworks in which they make the data available, not only globally but across each other, and they share it on a very rapid basis.

Health committee  I think the model for sharing in these types of epidemics is that the available data can go into public databases that are accessible for use by public health and researchers. It has certainly been the case. There's constantly one that is available for informing the flu. Whether it was available at the time of SARS or not, I'm not sure, but it's certainly the mechanism that we are going to be using for the current work that we're doing on COVID.

Health committee  We really have not done any significant research on virals before. We did some work in the past with VIDO in our early years in developing vaccines etc., but nothing that would compare to what is needed in this particular case.

Health committee  Thank you very much. I think that one of the key things that is required in Canada at the moment is to provide opportunities for Canadians to get equal access to emerging new technologies such as genomics, as Marc LePage described is going on in the United States and the U.K. In order to do that, there are many steps.

Finance committee  Certainly. Of course, we are not involved in the commercialization of those companies. We're involved in the research up front that is used to launch those. There's one example of a company in Ontario, DVS Sciences Inc., which has actually developed a mass spectrometry technology.

Finance committee  Definitely.

Finance committee  Yes, definitely.

Finance committee  No. That is not our role. However, what we do try to do is ensure that linkages are made. We have a memorandum of understanding with the Business Development Bank of Canada to try to identify projects that would be of interest to them, for example.

Finance committee  With regard to job creation, there would be thousands of jobs simply due to the research projects we support. Those are made up of dozens of scientists in each of the projects, and technicians, graduate students, post-docs, etc. The majority of the funding we spend actually goes into human resources.

Finance committee  That's right; it's non-GMO.

Finance committee  The money that will be available for research will be through an open competition in which scientists from across Canada will apply. That will be funded depending on the best science. That's how it works. And then a small portion has been allocated, according to the budget directions, to the support of the centres for their oversight.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  We've funded projects over a few years, in wheat, as you have said, looking at ways to create wheat that's drought-resistant, cold-tolerant, etc. But we have just funded a project, led out of the prairies, in which they are going to be part of the international team that's going to sequence the wheat genome, which will be an amazing resource, especially for Canada, where wheat is such an important commodity for us.

Finance committee  Certainly. That is of course something that has been identified in almost every report that has come out about the translation of discoveries into actual utility or application. Right now, we're trying to work with these industries and other end users. Sometimes there are regulatory issues and policy issues, or it may be something within industry, a gap that needs to be filled to address this.

Finance committee  We launch national competitions in which scientists from across Canada can apply to us for funding. The primary role of the regional genome centres is to work with the scientists in a centre's region, focusing usually on areas of priority for that region, to prepare them for the competition at Genome Canada, and also to secure the co-funding.