Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure to present two petitions today mainly from Ontario and Quebec. These are from post-doctoral students who highlight one of the real flaws of the recent budget, which was the elimination of the exemption for post-doctoral students.
The petitioners point out that this will create strong disincentives for junior researchers at the beginning of their careers and discourage the attention of highly-qualified recent Ph.D. graduates within Canada. It makes no sense at all, in their view that, while we want to encourage research and innovation and bring and keep researchers here, this exemption was taken out. It will be harmful and they think, at the very least, the government should have consulted with them and other stakeholders before it went forward with this.