Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much, everyone, for being here.
Ms. Brisson, I may be the only one around the table who is not a hockey player, but having been a competitive skier, I do appreciate everything you do. And I think, Mr. Rudge, we've encountered each other a couple of times at the bottom of Ski Canada and Alpine Ontario events, so it's good to see you again.
I want to just add briefly a thought on what you have proposed. Maybe my bias is showing, but I do appreciate your effort to continue the funding beyond the Olympics. In addition to your excellent presentation, on the value I will add that from an athlete's perspective we do understand that development of an athlete isn't something you can do just a year or two ahead of the Olympics; it is long-term.
And I will add also that the success of athletes raises our collective level of confidence for everything that Canada and Canadians can achieve. So I just want to thank you very much for being here, and of course I congratulate you for your successes. Thank you for being here today and for your presentation.
My question is for Dr. Kassen. We've had a number of really interesting presentations on a number of issues already, but we heard representatives from the polytechnics a few days ago. They raised a very important point and a question to be addressed, and maybe you can shed some light on it. It may put you on the spot a little bit, but it was the fact that money--as it is from governments in this country--really focuses still to a much larger extent on pure research as opposed to applied research. They had a number of examples of the work of the polytechnics in terms of applied research, both within the institutions themselves but also in cooperation with businesses and other participants. There are some really wonderful success stories for them and for the country, ultimately. But their point was that the level is out of proportion.
I appreciate your effort here in asking for more support for post-doctorate research fellows, and I don't disagree with that. I think we're all very supportive of seeing increased investment, and I share the point of my colleague, Mr. Mulcair, about it's being empty if it doesn't support the people. But can you shed a little bit of light on the differences, and where we can see improvements or benefits from investment in pure research, basic research, as opposed to applied research?