Finance committee  Good morning. I'm Dr. Cindy Bell, and I'm the executive vice-president at Genome Canada. I'm here on behalf of our president, Dr. Pierre Meulien. I am pleased to appear in front of this committee today in reference to the $65 million provided in the budget to Genome Canada. As

Finance committee  The majority of the funding that we're going to receive this year will go to human health. It's based on scientific excellence and other criteria that we assess. There aren't amounts allocated to any particular region.

Finance committee  We launch national competitions in which scientists from across Canada can apply to us for funding. The primary role of the regional genome centres is to work with the scientists in a centre's region, focusing usually on areas of priority for that region, to prepare them for the

Finance committee  British Columbia happens to be one of the provinces that has contributed greatly to the genomics environment in Canada, in that they have given specific funding to Genome British Columbia. Not only is that used to co-fund Genome Canada projects, but it also has allowed Genome Bri

Finance committee  I have lots, actually.

Finance committee  There are great salmon projects that are going on in Vancouver. We have been able to contribute to the sequencing of the salmon genome, which is a key resource to allow us to create a healthier aquaculture industy and wild fisheries industry with all salmonids.

Finance committee  Certainly. That is of course something that has been identified in almost every report that has come out about the translation of discoveries into actual utility or application. Right now, we're trying to work with these industries and other end users. Sometimes there are regulat

Finance committee  We've funded projects over a few years, in wheat, as you have said, looking at ways to create wheat that's drought-resistant, cold-tolerant, etc. But we have just funded a project, led out of the prairies, in which they are going to be part of the international team that's going

Finance committee  That's right; it's non-GMO.

Finance committee  The money that will be available for research will be through an open competition in which scientists from across Canada will apply. That will be funded depending on the best science. That's how it works. And then a small portion has been allocated, according to the budget direct

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  With regard to job creation, there would be thousands of jobs simply due to the research projects we support. Those are made up of dozens of scientists in each of the projects, and technicians, graduate students, post-docs, etc. The majority of the funding we spend actually goes

Finance committee  Yes, definitely.

Finance committee  No. That is not our role. However, what we do try to do is ensure that linkages are made. We have a memorandum of understanding with the Business Development Bank of Canada to try to identify projects that would be of interest to them, for example.

Finance committee  Certainly. Of course, we are not involved in the commercialization of those companies. We're involved in the research up front that is used to launch those. There's one example of a company in Ontario, DVS Sciences Inc., which has actually developed a mass spectrometry technolo