Industry committee  If you think about the Canada research chairs program, which is funding 2,000 researchers across the country, there is a special allocation that is a leg-up for small universities, for small research-performing universities. I think, for instance, NSCAD, in Halifax, ended up with a chair, I believe, through that process.

Industry committee  It's an international endeavour to try to answer that question. The OECD is leading that exercise and we're participating.

Industry committee  Absolutely, it's a mix. Different businesses have different needs. Most businesses benefit from the SR and ED program. It's very popular. But there are these other initiatives as well that play important roles.

Industry committee  One of.

Industry committee  It's the single largest Government of Canada program. That $4 billion a year is larger than other government programs to support innovation in Canada.

Industry committee  Thank you very much. The way in which this strategy is being made real is through a series of initiatives that have been announced in Budgets 2007 and 2008, and presumably as a multi-year framework it will continue to steer against those three advantages. In total, the past two budgets have announced about $2.3 billion of initiatives that support these advantages.

Industry committee  That's an external advisory council that is providing advice from that whole of government perspective, as you identify. The committee I'm referring to is an internal government committee to coordinate the science and technology strategy delivery. It's the responsibility of an ADM committee on science and technology against those policy commitments, so it's related but a different entity.

Industry committee  The most important aspect of the strategy that speaks to that is right up front, and it's about getting the right business environment so that companies want to be innovators, so that you're encouraging companies to invest in R and D and bring innovations to market. As we understand it, from the literature and from practice, it comes down to ensuring we have a competitive marketplace.

Industry committee  The only thing I would add to that is that if you read the provincial strategies on science, technology, and innovation and how they end up labelling them, there's actually a broad consensus among them about the kinds of challenges and the kinds of solutions. So the community is working within a very shared sense of the approach.

Industry committee  Thank you, sir. Good morning, and thank you for having us. I understand I have about five minutes. It's a 106-page document, but there are short versions and longer versions, if you're interested. My remarks have been distributed, so you have them. What I'll do is go through them as quickly as I can and hit the high points.