Science and Research committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Cannings. In the case of business process innovation, there's a lot of it that doesn't deserve to be patentable. It's best protected through a contract or a licence. You can license the process to other organizations. This can happen from a non-profit or a for-profit.

Science and Research committee  Yes. To your previous question, ISED did a study a few years ago and really pointed out the data that we all feel, that Canada is good at start-ups and bad at scale-ups. If we're going to expect businesses and SPOs to invest in intellectual property and commercialization, we need to get them past the start-up stage.

Science and Research committee  I have a couple of things on that. We've said several times in this conversation that we measure what matters. Are we measuring profitability? Generally speaking, I am seeing the government measure jobs, revenue and investment, but not profitability. That seems to be where the effort is placed.

Science and Research committee  I think that's the main recommendation. It's to include social purpose organizations. There's tremendous value for Canadians.

Science and Research committee  Thank you. It's nice to see you, Richard. Welcome to another Okanaganite. Those are great questions. A couple of examples.... How have governments stepped up to help? The federal government has a social innovation and social finance strategy. There's a $900-million strategy supporting this.

Science and Research committee  There are a couple of questions there. There are lots of ways to provide mentorship and leadership development in a model like entrepreneurs-in-residence, who are essentially experienced entrepreneurs providing some long-term coaching to leaders of SPOs and tech companies. That kind of long-term mentorship is critical.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the time check. Globally, impact investing is growing tremendously. It's growing tremendously here in Canada. Impact investing is putting direct investment into organizations that are working to solve cultural, social or environmental issues. There are unique needs.

Science and Research committee  IP is not just about patents, because much innovation can't be protected by patents or it's the wrong play or wrong choice to just focus on patents. Patents are registered IP. Contracts and licences are more like protecting unregistered IP. For a Canadian innovator like a tech company, for example, if you register a patent, it means you have to release what you're patenting.

Science and Research committee  It comes back to the people leading organizations, regardless of whether they are SMEs, tech companies or SPOs. It really comes back to the people leading. The social sector in general doesn't have much leadership development capacity provided by the government and the provinces.

Science and Research committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members. My name is Andrew, and for about 10 years, I've been focusing on supporting social entrepreneurs and impact leaders to address the root causes of systemic inequity. These people and organizations are working on some of the most complex and persistent problems in Canada: climate change, poverty and housing, mental health and addictions, colonization, racism, gender violence, food security and more.