Industry committee  I'm going to ask my associate Ms. Thivierge to provide you with additional information, but the final decision is made by the minister. It is the minister who must decide whether a transaction is subject to the act.

Industry committee  Very much so. We maintained a fairly ongoing dialogue with Nortel, as did other agencies of government, particularly EDC.

Industry committee  Those are comments that Nortel made. They are not my comments or comments of any of my staff, I think. I know Nortel had many meetings with a number of people within the federal government. Along the line, people may have made some comments; they may have interpreted some comments.

Industry committee  There are a few points. One, we did maintain ongoing dialogue with Nortel. The executive vice-president of the company at the time, David Drinkwater, was a former colleague of mine at OPG. We had regular ongoing dialogue. We had this discussion, in part, because Nortel is and was at the time an important contributor.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Further to your remarks that you would have us for only 60 minutes, I think my opening remarks will be 60 seconds, so there will be more time. I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear today in my capacity as deputy minister of Industry Canada and also as director of investment under the Investment Canada Act.

Industry committee  First you'd have to give me the name of the official, of the appropriate contact. Second, we want to maximize the impact of the $215 million that we're going to be spending. We want to do it as appropriately and suitably as possible. We want to do it in cooperation with the stakeholders.

Industry committee  The government made a commitment in the Throne Speech to consider the issue of copyright. That's one of the files currently under review, in the context of a number of other files. So it's one we have in view.

Industry committee  I really would like to see those numbers, in the sense that the overall portfolio includes the CFI, the granting councils, and the National Research Council, and so forth. The department runs fairly tightly, in turn, and I keep a fairly close eye on how much has lapsed. I think that within the Department of Industry, you're looking at something that is under 5%, which is quite manageable, because you don't want to run it—

Industry committee  What we're trying to do now is redeploy personnel to address emerging priorities, such as the knowledge infrastructure program. We've brought people in from our regional offices. We've brought people in from different programs and redeployed them on a temporary basis to these priorities.

International Trade committee  I think, as the minister noted, those matters are the purview of the Minister of Finance in regard to who is eligible for what, because these are tax expenditure type programs. I believe we will indeed note the views of the committee, and the minister can share those with the Minister of Finance.

International Trade committee  First, the budget amount that you are referring to is in addition to existing credits. As the minister stated, several credits were already included in previous budgets allocated to the various departments. The $175 million amount is simply an addition. We must also remember the significant support given to the Export Development Corporation.

International Trade committee  The Structured Financing Facility which was renewed in 2007 is intended to facilitate the transition. The other component, as the minister was mentioning, would be the purchases by the coast guard and the Department of Defence. The government hopes that these acquisitions will maintain continuity in employment, once the process to build these ships or to proceed with refits over the coming years has been launched.

Industry committee  If you have a legislative statutory base, then it becomes an act of Parliament to change it, as distinct from having the executive branch make a decision.

Industry committee  Where there's a political will--

Industry committee  Well, it depends on whether there is, I would submit to you, legislation that grounds a program. There are some agencies that are set up by fiat of the government. There are programs that are set up by fiat of the government. I think the key variable is legislation.