I would follow up on the comment. It's interesting. It's a very timely comment, I think.
One of the things we've been doing recently, as part of our review of our Build in Canada innovation program, is working with our colleagues in ISED and NRC to look at how we can expand this program and make it more effective exactly in the ways I think you're talking about.
For example, we have gone down to the United States. DARPA was mentioned, and it's a great example of a very innovative program. SBIR, the Small Business Innovation Research program in the United States, which has been around for almost 40 years, has become a huge engine of economic growth. How do they do that? They're investing. They have basically created a set-aside program for 11 federal departments in the United States. An act of Congress requires the top 11 federal U.S. departments to set aside 2.5% of their R and D budget—the last few years it's been 2.5%; next year it will be 3.2%—and in the United States that's $150 billion. They are making significant investments in what we call early-stage, phase I, and phase II R and D.
This is all being done in support of the programs and the mandates of these 11 departments. They have to actually invest in their programs. The strength of their program is that they've created a very small infrastructure. The actual decision-making.... I think the challenge function was mentioned a little while ago. This is exactly how many of those departments do it. They post public challenges to get innovative ideas to come in from right across the United States from academia and from all the different institutions.