Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I don't know the specific statistics on that. There are a combination of multinational R and D-related activities as well as a large number of smaller Canadian-owned entities. I would have to get back to you, if you'd like, on specific information on that.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I don't know that we have broad measures, but certainly when we do work, for example, in the areas of logistics and low-cost country sourcing, the analysis that tends to come back will speak to the experiences of individual firms as they source product domestically or from one country or another.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I don't think I'll be speaking directly to the idea of removing life supports, but there's always a balance to be struck. I mentioned macro policy and market framework policies. There are also funding and support systems at different levels of the government that apply to skills enhancement, training, education, communities in transition, adjustment--the ability, if you will, to adjust and be agile, such that, as the market forces and the life cycle of firms and industries are moving, they can help facilitate and enable those communities, those workers, or those firms.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I would say the government is aware that a number of different stakeholders have identified refundability and some of the rules around refundability as areas they do ask and have asked the Department of Finance to look at.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  As you allude to, it's a complex topic in terms of the innovation cycle, the ability to not only develop the new technologies but to be a part of an innovation system that involves both the research and then the ability to translate that into a commercializable product or process.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  We do look at best practices, and we also look at how to apply those and where they can apply most effectively here. Not every practice translates directly. So if there was something more specific on that that we could follow up with, we could do that, but I don't have anything more concrete to add off the top of my head right now.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Yes, the SR and ED tax credit is, as I understand it, the largest federal tax expenditure on this, and it is an area where the Department of Finance has identified the operation of the program as being a need for an opportunity to enhance how it's actually being administered. That is an area they're attempting to enhance right now.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I would have to defer a specific tax policy question like that to the Department of Finance.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Essentially, rather than any given manufacturer of a product having to house all of the various different dimensions of production from design through extraction, and through manufacture, distribution, and marketing, all in one facility or in a vertically integrated type of an operation, it's about that business model being broken into a series of tasks, if you will.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Generally speaking, what we're looking at is a combination of both. The FedNor type of regional development agencies have some on-the-ground federal presence, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is also attempting to align its resources along a sector basis so that it can assist with the export market development and investment attraction business, such that you have Industry Canada attempting to take, if you will, a bit of a border-in perspective in terms of competitive positioning, and then DFAIT looking at a kind of a border-out perspective, but there's a cross-hatching between them.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  I'll pick aerospace as an example. Aerospace is an industry that has been doing quite well. Canada's future looks quite bright in aerospace. There is a lot of innovation, a lot of R and D, and actual commercial sales. We have both an original equipment manufacturer, Bombardier, with a good global reputation, and there are also a number of small and medium-sized enterprises within the supply chain.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  FedNor as a program, as is the case with the other regional development agencies, is funded through the annual budget cycle.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Being neither a FedNor program expert nor a budget maker, I can't go into the specifics, except that I will add that in the context of this current budget, there was also some programming, such as the community adjustment fund—which is two years of $1 billion worth of funding, I believe—that is being delivered through regional development agencies across the country.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Yes. I was just looking for a copy of something I had that might have some of those percentages identified. You're quite right that this graph is identifying percentage changes, and not all industries are starting from the same base. For example, wood products, motor vehicles, aerospace, and a number of others have more size to them, such that for any given equal percentage fall, the actual number will be greater.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Yes. Motor vehicles and parts has 11% of the overall manufacturing share; fabricated metals has just under 8%; food manufacturing has 10%; machinery has 7.8%. We can provide this information to the committee in writing.