Finance committee  No. It's not a commercial enterprise; it's a scientific enterprise. The revenues coming in go to Canadian firms that build it. But you're right in that the actual program is a 10-year program and the telescope lasts for.... We built the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope in 1975 and

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  The ultimate site where it's built is on Mauna Kea. It's on the top of a mountain on the big island of Hawaii.

Finance committee  No, there is the front end. The construction is here. We are the experts. The companies in Canada are the ones that are building the telescope, so that will be physically built here.

Finance committee  It's 4,000 tonnes of steel. How much money does it cost to transport it? We would ship it.

Finance committee  No, it would be broken down.

Finance committee  All the telescopes in the world that we have built have been built here in British Columbia, actually, and shipped around the world. You can speak more to where the best locations are. There are only a couple of places in the world where they can be sited.

Finance committee  It depends which way they go. If it does not get selected, you're absolutely right. I think there is a picture in here. That is a Canadian design, that enclosure; that telescope is uniquely Canadian. It was designed here in Vancouver. But others can build that. Mitsubishi is al

Finance committee  Exactly. I'd say that's a fair statement, because that's been the case.

Finance committee  I didn't delve into the details, but I can give very good details on that. Not only am I co-chair representing industry, but I own the company that has built more than half the telescopes in the world in the last 30 years--in Canada. We've never made a dime on any telescopes, s

Finance committee  Thank you. I'm Guy Nelson, the co-chair representing industry for the Coalition for Canadian Astronomy. Paul Hickson is the co-chair representing the Canadian Astronomical Society. Today the Coalition for Canadian Astronomy will be making an urgent, and perhaps final, appeal t

Industry committee  We actually saw that problem. As a business person, and actually just having joined the astronomy envelope in the last year, we acquired the company called Dynamic Structures a year ago. We've committed to creating an industry-wide video for general public consumption, because we

Industry committee  In the astronomy umbrella, I think our company is probably a good example of the direct benefits. The government initially invested in the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. Our company built the first enclosure for that. From what was spent or invested to buy Canada's ownership pos

Industry committee  I'd just say that in the case of astronomy the issue is more on the capital side. We're working right now in collaboration with other countries on two major projects that are in the order of magnitude of $1 billion each--of which we're a percentage. And that is to build the facil

Industry committee  Thank you. We'd like to thank the committee for this opportunity to appear today. The Coalition for Canadian Astronomy was formed in 2000 and is unprecedented in the Canadian science community because three partners voluntarily joined together to form the coalition: professiona