Industry committee  That's a very good point, and it's something we're mindful of. Part of the survey that we undertook with StatsCan involved sitting down with specialists to try to have as broad a scope as we possibly could and as big a sample as we could in order to better capture that digital technology or that digital environment you referred to.

Industry committee  Let me try to start and maybe my colleague would have other elements to offer. I referred earlier to the graph in the previous slide that shows the delta, the gap between investments per worker in the United States and those per worker in Canada. Maybe you could look at the explanation for that significant gap.

Industry committee  It's an excellent question. To my understanding, there's no data on this; there's no study on this. But you point to something that is really important when it comes to digital technologies, that the investment itself is just one component of the broad equation, because it also takes resources to implement these technologies and to keep investing and maintaining those operations.

Industry committee  It's a very good question. I'm not sure I have all the answers, but one thing is that it's why we're going out to the field: to have a better understanding as to what's going on, to have more granularity there. As for whether or not some firms, for example, think that they don't need to have a web presence, there might be some firms, depending on the type of business they are in, that might decide not to have a such a presence in and of itself.

Industry committee  Those figures refer to websites per se. So as I said earlier, Mr. Lake, that doesn't necessarily capture the firms that might decide not to have a website per se but might say instead that they're going to have a presence on Facebook or have a Twitter account or an account on whatever other social media, which might, from their own perspective, be more efficient for doing outreach to their consumers or to their clients.

Industry committee  Thank you for your question. As I mentioned, three initiatives directly targeting SMEs have been introduced since 2011. I referred to the IRAP pilot project, which represents an $80-million program spanning three years. Basically, it is designed to provide advice, information and funding to businesses to help them increase their use of information technology.

Industry committee  I mentioned three initiatives that all come under the department's portfolio, IRAP, the BDC and the CANARIE program. We use those programs and initiatives to assist small and medium-sized businesses in adopting ICT or expanding their use of the technology, and by the same token, increasing their level of productivity and innovation.

Industry committee  There is also—

Industry committee  Thank you for your question. I will refrain from offering new ideas that the government could undertake, because that's the prerogative of the government and the minister. One thing I want to emphasize, though, is that, as I said in my presentation, we think the private sector has a key role in playing into this.

Industry committee  It's important to look at the initiatives brought forward by the government and the many elements supporting the digital economy that came about in direct response to issues raised by the various stakeholders. For instance, I mentioned the importance of ICT adoption and use.

Industry committee  As I told you, the government introduced various initiatives, such as the spectrum auction announced by the minister in March. I also referred to a number of initiatives brought forward to support ICT adoption and use. In the past few years, the government also made a financial investment, doubling IRAP's funding.

Industry committee  I referred earlier to access to broadband and wireless. Since 2008, when the government put in the AWS auction, which allowed for the entry of four players throughout the country, if you look at the overall average costs of wireless subscriptions, there has been an average savings of 18%.

Industry committee  Since 2008.

Industry committee  Thank you. I referred to some elements before with regard to the most recent initiatives that the government has put in place. There is the digital transformation program, which IRAP is responsible for. It was announced in budget 2011 and launched in November 2011. You will have the executive director here in a couple of weeks from now.

Industry committee  What I referred to are the firms with current connectivity, so the ones that are connected, as opposed to the fact that they have access. Some firms decide not to be connected. It was business connectivity, sir. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. That's what it's all about.