If I can parse it out, there are two things you're referring to. One is the non-replacement of key researchers, and that can be in either the government sector or in university. I will refer to the university environment because that's what I know.
When I was first at Guelph, for the 10 years between 1988 and 1998, we didn't recruit anybody. Then there was a little period of time when there was some recruitment and now we're back to not recruiting. That's created an enormous problem with regard to developing innovation across the country. We're not unique in that. I don't have a solution for that because it's all coming down to finances, clearly.
As to whether it's a good thing, I would argue it's not a good thing at all.