Finance committee  Mr. Chair, that's correct. You would want to speak to officials with responsibility for Export Development Canada.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, that question....

Finance committee  Thank you. I think the most straightforward way to answer the question is to use an example. I would take aerospace as a significant industry, in which we've had long-standing involvement through a number of programs over the years, and I would trace this industry's existence in the country back to a number of interventions, different policies that have taken place over the years.

Finance committee  That's correct, and also I would argue that because this industry is so contested, in fact, in countries where it's very strong, it's supported very significantly by those governments, often largely through their military expenditures, which does bring down and make much more technology come forward, which eventually has a civilian application.

Finance committee  I acknowledge, actually, a very significant report. The hon. Jean Charest, with the aerospace industry, produced a report on the state of the aerospace industry seeking a number of areas of support from governments and also a direction to the industry. We're very open. We work with the Aerospace Industries Association.

Finance committee  It's an interesting question. I just looked the other day and the U.S. Department of Defense's request for its budget for research and development for this coming fiscal year is $100 billion, so I would say we're absolutely doing the full measure that we can do to support projects, important projects, research and development in the future, and also we're working with an industry that in fact is undergoing a very significant restructuring.

Finance committee  To come to the question in terms of the rationale, a number of studies, I think.... Obviously the committee is undertaking this work and will want to explore this information. We point to recent OECD work. They've studied this question over many years, providing supporting evidence that these sorts of long-term investments do return well for the economy.

Finance committee  I'll ask my colleague if there's time to provide details on the benefits associated with the investment in BlackBerry QNX. I'll give the context. This is an investment that isn't available at any time around the world. It's really a turning point in automotive. We're investing now in this country in the future technologies that will underpin mobility and transportation, of which BlackBerry is a very key company.

Finance committee  The government introduced a women entrepreneurship strategy aimed at this very objective, which is to have more inclusion, more participation, in being able to create growth in the economy and address specific circumstances faced by women in securing capital, securing support for their businesses.

Finance committee  That's correct, sir.

Finance committee  Again, as I mentioned in my opening comments, the purpose of the initiative of bringing together large and small companies, the research base, is to be additive to the Canadian economy.

Finance committee  I don't have any specific information or research from the department that I could provide to that question, at least in respect of that particular initiative, but I understand the premise in terms of needing to raise taxation to provide those programs and make those investments in the future of the economy.

Finance committee  I acknowledge that there's obviously tax-raising, general revenues used to finance all government initiatives of this kind, all the programs that our government offers. The programs offered through the department, obviously, have to be justifiable that they will ultimately deliver the objective, which is to deliver growth, to deliver innovation in the economy in the long term.

Finance committee  In a general way, I think there is a sound body of economic research in respect of the particular advantage to a society. This is to say that we can gain wealth as a society by making particular investments, and certainly those in the area of research, development and technology in any jurisdiction around the world are areas where governments are making those investments because of the demonstration that this leads to long-term prosperity.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members. We are pleased to be here before your committee today. As we all know, Canada is operating in a global economy that is facing increasing uncertainty. Slower growth, environmental sustainability, aging demographics and an incredible pace of technological change are just some of the factors that make the job of supporting growth very challenging.