Industry committee  In general, the research we do with universities tends to have a longer horizon--emerging technologies, nanotechnologies, things of that type--and it's a very small fraction of the overall. I can't quote you numbers, but it's less.... The D part of the R and D is really where the bulk of the spending takes place.

Industry committee  Of course, with the Chinese indicating they want to get into large aircraft, that's more competition. As we mentioned before, competition is a good thing, but we have to make sure we react appropriately to it. The position of the Boeing company is to continue to collaborate and support the Chinese manufacturing industry—it is an important supplier to us—while at the same time keeping close watch on the competitive aspects of their desire to build large airplanes.

Industry committee  There are a couple of ways to approach that. The nice thing about today's technology and communication capabilities is that we have somewhat of a “design anywhere, build anywhere” philosophy, so the physical relocation of engineers to Canada or to the United States may not be a necessity.

Industry committee  Thank you. I'd like to follow up on Mr. McKay's comments. You hit on a point that I think is very important here. In the countries where we've successfully utilized technology-based IRB programs, we have been able to come to terms with how we value technology. We go about it in a relatively methodical way in terms of looking at the impact it could have on the end recipients.

Industry committee  The protection of intellectual property is always a concern. We have long-standing relationships in China and Japan for manufacturing and a growing relationship in Japan for design and manufacturing. From a technology, research, and development perspective, we have to be very careful in those areas.

Industry committee  I might add that Boeing has a number of relationships with the automobile industry. In particular, we've had a standing technology collaboration relationship with the Ford Company for over 11 years. In addition, for the past three years--we've just extended that relationship an additional five--we've had a relationship with the Renault Formula One race team.

Industry committee  The key thing we focus on is the government investing in and graduating talented engineers. If you look around the world, there are parts of it where degreed engineers are being produced at a tremendous rate—in China and India. We're suffering in the United States, and I believe here in Canada to a certain extent, with young people not being interested in the technical areas, so as a company we're not only engaged with higher education and reaping the benefits of those highly trained engineers who come out of the universities, but we're also engaged at the K through 12 level in trying to get kids excited about technology and thinking about it as a path, not being intimidated by the science and the math that's required to go into that field.

Industry committee  I could speak to that. I've worked closely with our IRB and industrial participation teams over the years. I was a member of that team for a number of years. Across the world it's very wide-ranging. Some governments are very prescriptive. In particular, I could point out that the Korean government is very specific about what they want, about what kinds of ratios of technology versus manufacturing they want.

Industry committee  Honourable members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, it's a privilege to be here today. I'd like to thank you for your invitation to discuss the topic of science and technology in Canada and its impact on the aerospace industry. I'm pleased to report that Boeing is an integral part of Canada's aerospace industry.