If I may, I would say very briefly that I do think that there's actually incredible value in having basic government researchers work with government researchers, industry researchers, and so on. As Fred indicated, the goals of both can potentially be achieved, but the way we're currently doing things, which is requiring increased funding on the part of businesses to contribute to programs, puts an undue pressure on business and industry, and an increased movement in that area also takes away from basic discovery-oriented research. In fact, a novel and innovative way to think about this is how the two objectives can indeed be defined. We used to have that under the NSERC strategic grants program, which still exists, but it exists in a different form today. I think both objectives can be achieved if we have the will and the desire to do so.
On May 29th, 2012. See this statement in context.