Agriculture committee  Waterloo historically had a lot of strength in engineering and computer science. They helped grow those sectors, academically, technically. You really have to go back to Dr. Hagey, one of the original people involved. As they grouped, they made a concerted effort to declare themselves in this category; they were going to lead.

Agriculture committee  What was the last part of your question?

Agriculture committee  It really comes down to the outputs you're looking for. If you're looking to fund investigational research that is far removed from commercialization, so that it's not done in support of a health claim, then that money perhaps did have a higher return on investment. However, if your outputs are a health claim, which is really what a lot of the food and beverage companies and even growers groups are ultimately looking for in their sector, because that's what gives them commercial advantage domestically and internationally, then these trials have not been designed in the appropriate way.

Agriculture committee  I was born and raised in Kitchener-Waterloo. I'm a University of Waterloo graduate. I remember when Phillip Street was farmers' fields. Within a span of five to 10 years, the University of Waterloo just made a stand and declared themselves the MIT of Canada. From that, RIM, Sybase, Open Text, MKS, and Virtek--I could list a bunch of others--just blossomed.

Agriculture committee  For Mr. Bellevance's understanding, it was not done by machine. It was done by one of my staff who is certified in bilingualism. I apologize.

Agriculture committee  It was definitely done with good intentions. I apologize for whatever communication—

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And thanks to the panel for having me out to speak. I appreciate it. Most of you likely have not heard of us or our company. Just to give you some brief background, at risk of sounding like an infomercial, which I don't want to do, we're a contract research organization founded in 2002.