Industry committee  I am going to ask my colleague Mr. Kennedy to answer, since not only is he the associate deputy minister, but he is also the director of Investment Canada. So he is directly responsible for managing the act.

Industry committee  Well, one, I think we should compare notes about source documents, because my reading of the State of the Nation report that a third party--the science council--put out did not paint that gloomy a picture. For example, Canada punches above its weight in regard to citations per capita, which is a major indicator of the quality of research and the number of researchers.

Industry committee  I alluded briefly to that in terms of information and communication technology adoption. Our usage of computers by small and medium-sized companies is much lower than it is in similarly sized firms in the U.S. So that is why, within the digital economy strategy, we are putting so much emphasis on trying to enhance productivity to lead to more competitiveness.

Industry committee  You gave me only one sign, right?

Industry committee  There, I've wrapped it up.

Industry committee  Let me start with the second part. If you look at most OECD countries, the space allocated in our GDP for traditional manufacturing is gradually shrinking as people go to other countries, less costly countries, to manufacture products. So we have to go up the knowledge and manufacturing food chain.

Industry committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us to your first meeting. I've been asked to do a bit of an overview of the department. I will start by noting my two colleagues: Simon has been with us for over a year now, and Kelly has been with us for two or three years. I'd like to give a brief overview of what the department does and speak briefly about the industry portfolio, which encompasses the granting councils and so forth.

Official Languages committee  I will give you a brief answer. If you are interested in that, I would suggest a joint presentation with the three granting councils. As a matter of fact, grants to researchers and universities come from the granting councils.

Official Languages committee  Pardon?

Official Languages committee  I will make a note of that and mention to them that you are interested in this. Perhaps, on a subsequent round, when you've had an opportunity to renew your term...

Official Languages committee  We can discuss this again later. The granting councils have the lead on this.

Official Languages committee  My colleague would like to respond with respect to FedNor.

Official Languages committee  We are currently working on this plan. We are expecting to finish it in May. Once we have completed and cleaned up the plan, we will be sharing it with the commissioner in order to ascertain whether we need to make any changes, although we do think that we have done some good work.

Official Languages committee  I will send a copy to the committee vice-chair and to the entire committee.

Official Languages committee  There is always room for improvement. Last year, we took action and we would have a better score if we were to get another report card, I am convinced of that. We will know when the Office of the Commissioner does its next report. Meanwhile, we will continue doing our polls and verifications.