Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's wonderful to be able to question you today, Mr. Goodyear.
Let's move right to the devastating report that the Conference Board of Canada published a few weeks ago on the state of innovation in Canada. I'll quote a few excerpts from it. It states, “Despite a decade or so of innovation agendas and prosperity reports, Canada remains near the bottom of its peer group on innovation, ranking 13th among the 16 peer countries.” It states, “Countries that are more innovative are passing Canada on measures such as income per capita, productivity, and the quality of social programs.” Moreover, states the report, “So far, there are no conclusive answers—or solutions—to Canada's poor innovation ranking.”
I find this to be quite embarrassing. Your government has been trying to fix this for almost a decade. How do you explain your horrible record on innovation?