Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my colleague for his question.
I certainly agree very strongly with Mr. Bigras on the importance of research. We talked about how much research there is going on in the department, and in fact Environment Canada scientists are world leaders in climate change research.
I have to confess that I have to wait until the budget to give you details of any steps regarding funding of external research by Environment Canada, and I apologize for that, but that's the reality of the timing that we face.