Finance committee  I understand there'll be another session with representatives from the National Research Council. They will be able to talk to you in depth on those provisions. I apologize. I don't have the information today.

Finance committee  Thanks for that question. Within the BIA context you'll see that one of the functions outlined for the corporation is explicitly that it will promote the development and retention of intellectual property. As far as the specifics on the how, it's not within the legislation. You can look at the blueprint document that was released for some indication of how we think it may make sense for it to materialize in the corporation.

Finance committee  Thanks for the question. Within the legislation, there is no prescription of exactly where or for what funding will flow. In fact, it says that it will flow to all sectors and all regions, which really just provides the opportunity for the corporation to operate in all sectors and all regions with that intent.

Finance committee  First, just for precision, it's business expenditures in research and development. It's very focused on research and development projects and not investment in capital. For example, it's not capital adoption but rather research and development, which can include technological adaptation.

Finance committee  Laid out in the legislation you'll see there is a path of funding. It gets up to $825 million, I believe, and then it levels off at $525 million.

Finance committee  Thanks very much for the question. Again, I'm Greg Reade, a director general in the Department of Finance. You're quite right that a number of programs across the government work with businesses to promote, as you talked about, some of those features. What's new and different and will be built on in the Canada innovation corporation with respect to those three functions is that, for example, in allocating the financial support, a roster of technical experts will be built with regard to the different types of research and development.

Finance committee  Nothing in the legislation prevents that from happening, but neither is there a plan currently for it to come under the Canada innovation corporation. It was acknowledged in the blueprint document, if you've had a chance to review it, that as the corporation learns and understands what it can best offer by way of support to companies in terms of IP retention and protection, that might be an activity where it may either partner with existing patent collectives or create its own at some point in the future.

Finance committee  Just to clarify the question, is this with regard to the Canada growth fund or the Canada innovation corporation?

Finance committee  I'll speak on behalf of the Canada innovation corporation, and my colleague can speak with regard to the growth fund. The approach was taken for a couple of reasons, and there are a number of measures to counterbalance this approach. In the first instance, laying out, in legislation approved Parliament, the amount of funds that will be available was deemed to provide businesses with whom the corporation will interact a measure of stability and security so that they understand that the government is here to provide this support and funding in the long term, which is deemed important for businesses that might take on multi-year research and development projects.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. My name is Greg Reade. I'm a director general in the Department of Finance, and I'm joined by colleagues from Innovation, Science and Economic Development. It's a joint team that has developed the legislation that you referred to, which will enact the Canada innovation corporation.