Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Honourable members, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Boothe. I'm a retired deputy minister and public finance professor living in Dundas, Ontario. I'm joined here by Sheryl Urie, as you heard, the vice-president of finance at SDTC. I thank you for allowing her to participate in place of our acting CEO, Mr. Ziyad Rahme, who has an important family commitment this afternoon.

Mr. Chair, on June 4, the Governor in Council appointed me as the chairman of the board of directors of the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology—it's quite a mouthful—for a term of one year. I was appointed to the board along with two other retired deputy ministers, Cassie Doyle and Marta Morgan.

On the same day, the Auditor General released her “Report 6: Sustainable Development Technology Canada”, and the Minister of Industry also released a report, by the law firm McCarthy Tétrault, on HR practices at the foundation. In addition, on June 4—it was a busy day—the Minister of Industry announced a new direction for governance of the foundation, with the foundation's programming and staff to be transferred to the National Research Council. Further, the minister announced that the foundation's funding to clean technology start-ups would recommence forthwith.

I hope that, today, in answer to your questions, I can share with you what we intend to do as the new board of the foundation—to restart funding and to plan and execute the transfer of the programming and staff to the NRC. Before I do, however, I want you to know that the new board of directors accepts the recommendations of the Auditor General. In recommencing our funding of clean technology start-ups, we will be guided by her report as we update our practices related to record-keeping and the management of conflicts of interest. Further, we will work with the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development to ensure that the contribution agreement fully reflects the government's intended purpose for the funding we disburse, and we will ensure that all future funding decisions are fully compliant with the terms of the contribution agreement.

Although we are only on day 13 of our new mandate as the board of directors, we are working hard to understand the foundation's work and its operations and the recommendations of the Auditor General's report. Foundation staff are working diligently to develop a concrete plan to address the concerns expressed by the Auditor General. I'm confident that we'll be able to successfully accomplish the objectives of restarting the funding in a manner consistent with the recommendations of the Auditor General and planning and implementing the transfer of the foundation's programming and staff to the National Research Council.