Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much for being here today. There are many of you at that end of the table and I hope you are comfortable.
I'll start with you, Ms. Foster.
Your presentation was quite troubling. You said that Canada is lagging behind in international research. It is not even in the top 30 countries, which is quite worrisome. Investments in constant dollars have also decreased. I think this shows a lack of vision on the part of successive governments, particularly with respect to basic research, which is often the poor cousin of research because it requires long-term investment. However, let us remember that without basic research, there would be no microwaves, no cellphones and no lasers. Of course, there would be no nuclear industry either.
With the way governments work, applied research is often trendier because they want to show results every four years, at election time.
How are funds allocated between applied research and basic research? According to your members, in what direction should we be headed?