Industry committee  I don't know.

Industry committee  The only thing I would say is that I think it's evident from the investor perspective that intellectual property is a really attractive part of the asset base when they're choosing to invest in a Canadian company. It's up to us to look at how we are capitalizing companies as another important means of retaining the company in Canada, helping it to grow.

Industry committee  It wasn't specific to clean tech, no. The stat I was referencing is in the Canadian International Council's report. It shows that of Canadian companies that are acquired, there's a large proportion of them that are acquired by a foreign buyer, which means that the intellectual property assets leave Canada.

Industry committee  I don't know all of the details, but my understanding is that this standard agreement is for state research centres that are receiving funding from government and partnering with industry, so part of the condition for receiving that funding is that the industry-academic collaboration agreement is standardized; it makes the process more efficient, and everyone has the same common understanding going into this kind of relationship as to what will happen.

Industry committee  Sure, and thank you for the question. I think you're absolutely right. Every Canadian university has its own method of IP ownership, its own policy. The University of Waterloo's policy is a creator-owned policy, which is quite different from other university IP policies. The challenge I think goes to the theme that I think we've been exploring.

Industry committee  Again, it goes to an overall strategy our companies need to find. I'll give you a local example. John Baker is a Waterloo region entrepreneur who founded a company called Desire2Learn while still a student at the University of Waterloo. When John started to do business in the U.S., he found himself in a Texas courtroom defending his intellectual property.

Industry committee  I think IP certainly does have an important role in that. In some ways that issue is more one of access to capital, and I know there are other conversations happening about how to increase access to capital for early-stage companies. As you're building your start-up you're trying to figure out if you can grow it to a billion-dollar company in Canada, or if you can grow it to a certain point, at which time you need to figure out what your exit strategy is.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. I think the reason we and others suggest a focus on SMEs is that we know they are a driver of job growth. They grow more quickly than their start-up counterparts or their multinational counterparts. In our context, we think of them as the gazelles, those that are on a large growth trajectory.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for the invitation to join you today. I'm Avvey Peters, and I'm with Communitech. We're the technology organization in Waterloo region, Ontario. I also have the pleasure of working with Communitech's national initiative, the Canadian Digital Media Network—our effort to connect Canada's digital media industry clusters together.

Human Resources committee  I can say anecdotally that we have a sense that our regional technology companies aren't capturing as many of our local grads as we would like. These are really talented people. They can work anywhere in the world. We do our best to try to build an affinity for them locally so that they stay, if not in Waterloo region, then at least in Ontario or Canada, but I don't have any hard numbers.

Human Resources committee  I would go back to the point that Jason made earlier, around the system in general, which is that the principles of speed and flexibility are really paramount. I know, having some spent time working at a university, that it's really difficult for an academic institution to overhaul a curriculum and change direction drastically, but I think those two principles are things that industry is really seeking and that we should be trying to build into our partnerships with academic players.

Human Resources committee  From our perspective, the number one challenge for tech companies today is talent. Close behind that is access to capital. At a very high level, the measures we saw in the budget around additional risk capital being made available are a positive sign for our industry.

Human Resources committee  Certainly. Yes.

Human Resources committee  I'm not sure.

Human Resources committee  I know that there are co-op programs across the country—