It is my turn.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. A great big thank you.
I was quite dismayed by what I heard today from the six people who came to speak with us. I have the very distinct impression that the removal of this program is to a certain extent, for those who benefited from it, a death knoll for their future.
I am convinced that if we only support what is being done today and what is profitable and popular today, nothing new will be produced, and future creativity will be threatened.
History is full of cases like that, everywhere: Marconi, Wernher von Braun, these are all people who works were costed out properly. We talked this morning about the fact that Van Gogh never sold a thing while he was alive and yet, today, this artist's works are the most expensive in the world.
The Eiffel Tower, the construction of which was decried by everyone at the time, is today the symbol of France. The Cirque du Soleil, that received a $1 million grant — a grant awarded to a clown by René Lévesque, at the time, for a completely crazy affair — is today the greatest circus in the world.
If what is new and is not immediately profitable is cut, these are the types of things that will not come about. What is your thinking on this more specifically?