You know what? One of the interesting things about trying to answer questions like this is that you're always expected to answer it in a sound bite and give one sentence that describes it all. Sound bites are good for media, but they're not good for strategic planning, so the way to do it is to take an example of something that is important to Canadians and show them how space can make a difference, and then take another example that is important to Canadians and show them how space can make a difference.
Take the safety of our coastlines. Our military and our public safety people, which involves several different departments, as you know, protect the west and east maritime approaches very well. We have a black hole in the north, though. We don't have the protection that's required.
Space can only be part of the answer because it takes an integrated level of assets to make it safe for the whole country, but space, if we invest the way that we're suggesting we should invest, will let us tighten up our coastlines very well. We have a system that can see every ship in the world and what it's doing. This is something that is important not just to Canada but to the entire world. That's just on security.
I can take an example and make it resonate. We have talked all morning about agriculture. It's huge. You can change the GDP of a country just by using space assets. It's a challenge to do it, a challenge to change how people think culturally, but it will work because the data now are compelling. What the data tell you about what's happening to crops is quite compelling.
It's the same in forestry. We're losing forest--I think the number is four times the size of Prince Edward Island--every year in Canada. Space assets can see that happening sooner and can stop it. There's a propagation of bugs across the west that is killing our forests. We can identify that from space and know where to go. We can manage our assets much better.
If I take ocean science, the oceans are where the future is for the food supply in the world. I was on the advisory committee for Copenhagen and was with Galen Weston, a very interesting individual. His company, which has several billion dollars in revenue a year, is focusing on the oceans for their future food supply.
If I just take communication and the economic side of things, a simple way to say it is you can't use your credit card today in Toronto if someone else used it 10 minutes ago in Vancouver. It's our space assets that prevent that from happening. I could easily make a list of a day without space in Canada and what it would do for a Canadian, and I haven't even touched communications yet.
