Finance committee  Again, the projects are just commencing.

Finance committee  Are you asking me under the strategic innovation fund?

Finance committee  I don't have the list of projects that are repayable or non-repayable.

Finance committee  We can. We would be more than happy to provide that list.

Finance committee  I don't have that number with me, but we would be happy to provide the list.

Finance committee  Why don't I give an example of the strategic innovation fund? When an application comes in, we assess it as to the public economic and innovation benefits, and if we determine that those are high, then that project moves forward. The project then undertakes a technical review. We work closely with NRC IRAP.

Industry committee  Well, as you know, in the recent budget we received an additional $100 million for CRIN, which is the Clean Resource Innovation Network. We're in early discussions with those companies, many of them located in Alberta. We expect to have a fairly solid project pipeline out of that $100 million, going forward.

Industry committee  You specifically mention health and data. That's under stream 4, where the government launched a challenge to industry. We had several strong applications come forward and we just recently announced the two winning applicants.

Industry committee  In order to make that assessment, we use a whole-of-government approach, which includes departments. We draw particularly on the technical expertise of IRAP in the National Research Council. In this case, we also had four expert advisers who provided input on the applications and enabled us to make an informed decision moving forward.

Industry committee  It's a very exciting area because, as you say, Canada has the potential to be leading in this area. ISED has been working very closely with Natural Resources Canada, AECL and the regulators to get a better understanding of the technologies and their applicability in the Canadian market, as well as the global market.

Industry committee  That's right. Each one is assessed on its merit, based on public, economic and innovation benefits, and that's how we calculate the SIF contribution. In terms of repayability and non-repayability, our standard is repayability. In the event that there's a significant public benefit, such as significant employment in a certain area, greenfield investment, a large number of co-ops and a large number of R and D collaborations, we can start to look at some partially non-repayable projects, but in general the standard is repayable contributions.

Industry committee  The strategic innovation fund was announced in June 2017, so we don't have a long history of repayability, because we're still in negotiations on the contribution agreement. Every commitment in the contribution agreement is an obligation on the company. It's not only repayability, it is jobs created, it's their R and D collaborations, it's the co-ops they create; we take those commitments seriously.

Industry committee  All applicants have been in repayment mode.