Thank you, Chair. Thank you all. We say to every panel that we don't give you much time to present. We know you put your heart and soul into these presentations, and they're important to us.
I'd like to start with NSERC, with Madam Fortier. In your statement you made the comment--and I'm trying to quote directly--that “We cannot afford to waste any human talent in this country”, which I think is entirely admirable and apropos. You talked about the BlackBerry. We have in fact reversed the brain drain, which was such a big deal in Canada five, six, seven years ago, until the investments in publicly funded research, which has an impact far beyond what I think a lot of people even realize.
Notwithstanding that, Mr. Rutherford, you are right that federal investment in their own science.... I see it in my own riding, at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, where we have not in fact kept up with the scientific investments, but we have put a lot of money into NSERC, SSHRC, CFI, CIHR, and all those sorts of things.
You indicate that your budget now is $902 million, of which about $700 million is A-based and $200 million is the Canada graduate scholarships, CRC, and things like that. Can you give me a reference? What would that $900 million have been--and you may not have the exact number--five, six, or even 10 years ago? Do you have a sense of what it would have been?