Natural Resources committee  —the offshore technology that became a Canadian-made solution. That's starting to be applied to other things, for example, but the government took a risk and the private sector took a risk.

Natural Resources committee  I'll leave it at that. I an happy to answer questions. Thank you.

Natural Resources committee  Think of “Ontario”; I could be one.

Natural Resources committee  I wouldn't say that the Conference Board would assist with specific technologies, but in terms of establishing a framework in order to de-risk as much as possible the process of bringing a concept to the lab, to the commercialization phase, and the scaling phase, I think we can offer some insights.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the committee members. Just to provide a word on the Conference Board, we're a research organization, independent and not for profit. In fact, we're a charity by law. All the work we do in public policy and on public policy questions is driven by facts and hard evidence.

Government Operations committee  Before changing the charter, I am suggesting you have to be really careful because the solvency dimension of those pension plans—

Government Operations committee  —is measured in terms of the operation versus long-term solvency. Those rules are in place for really good reasons, and you have to be really careful before going there.

Government Operations committee  This is a really important point, and it's back to making sure that we—like we did on the cost side.... I totally reconfirm that our mandate was just to look at alternative ways of delivering cost savings. We didn't really look at the revenue-generating side so much, and there are options there.

Government Operations committee  It has to be assessed more thoroughly.

Government Operations committee  The sunk capital for...?

Government Operations committee  It's kind of an obvious—

Government Operations committee  What was that for, in particular?

Government Operations committee  There's a dynamic aspect into this that needs to be considered. The changes that have been put in place have, in fact, delivered some results. At the end of the day, whether it's postal banking or other solutions, I think the overarching conclusion of the report was that there is no single solution that's easy to put in place, and they're not cumulative.

Government Operations committee  I would have to look at the specifics of that, so I can come back to you on that in particular. For the modelling exercise, I wasn't overseeing that at the time, but I've reviewed the work and I stand behind it, of course. That was the specific assumption of how cost adjustments were made, and it has to be done like that, recognizing—

Government Operations committee  They're not just stand-alone or cumulative over time. They're complex, so that's the overarching conclusion. There is another thing, and I'd like to make that point really clear, because that's the bread and butter of the Conference Board, and I am an economist myself by training.