Thank you very much for that question.
I think one of the challenges that all of us as Canadians face is to have better information about the impact of SMEs on the economy, and particularly on exports. If one does an analysis of exports by size of firm, in the non-resource sector—because the way exports are counted, those firms, even though they serve the energy sector, will likely be counted in the non-resource sector—the percentage of overall exports of manufactured goods and services by SMEs is surprising. I should say that such information is not generally counted, and it would be good for Canada's economy if our economists overall gave us better information.
The other thing I would say the federal government could do, in addition to providing information on exports by size of firm, would be to provide information on R and D investments by size of firm. This information is produced only very occasionally. I think the last time it was made available was in 2009 and in that report 45% of R and D investments were made by firms with fewer than 500 employees.
So just as infrastructure for making better decisions, those two things would be helpful.
In terms of economic potential for this sector, I have to say that a number of larger companies play an important role in this industry—so I'm not saying it's all SMEs—but three-quarters of the R and D investments are being made by SMEs. I think what we're learning is that what we would consider to be tiny companies—the $10-million to $25-million companies with annual sales and employee bases of fewer than 100 people—if they're investing in R and D, as we heard earlier today from Mr. Patterson at Virtual Marine Technology, expect to be engaged with very large firms directly. This is new research that could be conducted in other sectors, including ICT and life sciences as examples. It's a new world, I think, that we may want to have more research done on, and firms like Mr. Patterson's would obviously be very good examples to include in that.
I think I'll leave it at that so that your question time is available for others as well.