International Trade committee  Thank you for that question. One area is important for sure, which is that investments in small companies are somewhat complicated by the fragmented rules on deal structures and terms we have when we're trying to look at moneys moving between Canada and the EU. If at all possible, we'd like to see further standardization across Europe to make the flow of moneys easier, because none of these things gets money from just one jurisdiction.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. Our mandate is to develop a sustainable development technology infrastructure in Canada. We do that by selecting and picking strong Canadian companies that have clean technologies and need to develop those, and we put funding into them—one third of it being the federal government's, two thirds mostly private sector—and those projects de-risk technology, and then we work with a company to build its capability to seek private sector investment.

International Trade committee  I have to confess that we don't have what I would consider an accurate enough assessment to say what it would do, but I would like to emphasize that we have got a need for our Canadian clean-tech companies to diversify their markets, and the growth is very strongly export-oriented, so I can only see this as being one of the mechanisms that would allow us to move from having 1% of the global clean-tech business to 2%.

International Trade committee  I'm trying to do the math in my head. It's 1% of the market, which we have moved from $1 trillion to $3 trillion in that time space, so I'm having trouble answering you, though, specifically on that number. Obviously that's a share of a huge market, and the SMEs are small companies that don't have quite the same legs as the large companies, so some kind of arrangement that makes it easier for them to enter those international markets would be valued.

International Trade committee  Oh, absolutely.

International Trade committee  I think it's because the wonderful thing about clean technology is it is the nexus of the different systems, in that it is providing both an economic and environmental benefit and it does not have to degrade either of them. If you look at SMEs, which are the majority of the clean-tech companies, they provide economic opportunities in urban and rural communities across this country.

International Trade committee  Thank you--another excellent question. In terms of growth, we see the U.S. market as not as large as the EU, as you have noted on one of the slides. However, those are percentages. In total size, we see the clean-tech market growing as a whole. At the moment, the clean-tech revenues for Canada are some $9 billion, currently representing 0.9% of the global market opportunity.

International Trade committee  Yes, the technologies are integrated into the natural resource. Forestry, agriculture—we're now moving heavily in the oil and gas side—and energy efficiency use in buildings would be the primary ones where we're having big successes. Thank you.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. The assumptions on page 5 are based on the fact that we haven't got the CETA component in there. These are based on questions to the clean-tech companies we work with out of the portfolio across Canada. We've talked about their paths to market, their intended target markets, the partnerships they have, and how they should move forward.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning to address you on what is a very important topic for the success of the companies that SDTC supports. I believe you have our presentation there. The points that I want to start out with is that the clean-tech industry is one that is not perhaps well understood, but it's generated some 44,000 jobs, which are in fact in excess of the direct jobs in the extraction industries of mining and forestry, and comparable to those in oil and gas.

Finance committee  It would take us to the early stage, where we still work, where there is not sufficient risk capital. In terms of EDC, I would say that we work very closely with them. Some of our companies are now large enough to go through the stand of product offerings of EDC. We are working on a relationship in which we will provide the Canadian clean tech landscape analysis and support to EDC, and they will help us with the export markets.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for that question. I would like us to have the opportunity for the model to move more explicitly to be able to obtain some returns on our success rates. As you just mentioned, Titanium is a wonderful company. It's an example. Another one is EcoSynthetix. It just did a $100 million IPO.

Finance committee  Thank you. I believe there are different ways of providing support, and the SR and ED methodology does indeed add value. I don't know that we need to have a differential rate for clean technology on the development side. I think we have a mechanism that works. There could be other ways of looking at the procurement of product in this country—increased purchase of green technologies and creating a stronger domestic market positions us to see some of this $1 trillion international market.

Finance committee  We do see companies that have been supported by IRAP. The last time we checked, it was in the order of 25 of our 220-odd companies. We work well with them. The SR and ED number, I don't have. But there are quite a large number that will access SR and ED, something in the 70% range.

Finance committee  In screening our opportunities, we don't just look at the technology. We look at the strength of the team and the market opportunity. There has to be customer demand for that product—that's a key criterion. We have not yet looked at how the government might help in a general statistical way, because the fund you created is relatively new.