Finance committee  The short answer to the question is it's because right now in the United States, the carbon policies that enable direct atmospheric carbon capture are more advanced than the ones we have in Canada. We're in the process of catching up in Canada, I think, but in Texas and the United States, at the federal and provincial level, they're already in place, so the economics for a first plant for us mean the United States.

Finance committee  With regard to angel investors, yes, some of that $113 million that we've pulled in from private sources came from angel investors. Our largest owner is actually Bill Gates, from his own private investments. He can probably afford to take a bet or two on new technology. We also got support from Michael Hutchison, who is a private individual in British Columbia, and a couple of others as well.

Finance committee  Let's use the example of Amazon. Jeff Bezos has just announced a significant fund for climate innovation. How do I get a hold of Jeff Bezos? I have no idea. We got to Mr. Gates because our founder knew somebody who knew Mr. Gates. Those connections are important. On the banking side and the equity side, when I first joined the company, we were almost out of money, and it was extremely hard to find any private equity source or any venture capitalists.

Finance committee  Sure. It's early days for us, even though the business is 10 years old. We're trying to solve a massive long-term problem for society in climate change. So far, we've grown from 20 jobs to just under 100 today. We've attracted over $100 million of funding from outside the country, which is being spent in British Columbia and Alberta.

Finance committee  It's very difficult to start a major business. We're just north of Vancouver, in Squamish. To do that, you need to get clear recognition of your technology and what you can do. We had a good idea—not me, but the founders of the company, my employers, had a good idea. Bringing that to light and convincing people that this was a way they could make a big difference in climate change required the technology to be demonstrated.

Finance committee  Thank you. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, whatever it may be. Let me start by apologizing for the fact that I'm not physically present with you today, but I think I have a very good reason. Yesterday I met with His Royal Highness Prince Charles. We were asked to come over and brief him on the technology that we've developed.