The intention would be that we would have our own ability to steer that money as we've done in the past. The other funding agencies have a very clear role to play. NSERC, I would say, is the envy of the world in terms of their operations and their support for Canadian science. Their greatest strength, however, is also their greatest weakness, in that they're a bottom-up driven organization. They respond to scientists who are making application for funds, and they lack the ability that I think we have to make sure the results get translated into a format that can be useful for policy and also for informed business decisions.
On October 28th, 2009. See this statement in context.