Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
To Mr. Schetagne from the Canadian Association of University Teachers, obviously I'm from the previous government. You gave some strong points right off the top with respect to your disappointment in how we approached innovation. I would say this. Innovation, we know from the OECD, is difficult in Canada because we lack entrepreneurship and we lack commercialization of our basic research. That's the area we tried to focus in on. You view it as narrow Canadian commercial interests. We view it as trying to move from what's happening in the lab to putting it out into the real world.
But that's not my question. This is my question. In your presentation, I was struck by the fact that you're gearing it towards having more accessibility and greater enrolment in universities, bringing more people in. That is laudable, but the reality is that Canada does very well in that aspect. Indeed, we are number one in the OECD in terms of tertiary education. The fact is that women between 18 and 34 make up 66% of this, but do you know where I don't see women? I don't see them as university professors. What are you guys doing to make sure that female university professors are making it up through the ranks from assistant professor to associate professor to full professor, and why don't you come back to this committee with a proposal on how to fix that problem that we have in our university system?
I'd appreciate that. The next time you come in, instead of worrying about what we've done in the past, think about what's happening in the future. Take that as some advice to come in and talk to us about it, because I think it's a pressing issue. I think it's exactly why we have situations of chill with respect to women in science and we have chill with respect to women in these positions going through life, trying to figure out how to do maternity leave, still do research, and still be on that track for full professorship. I don't hear anything acknowledging that issue from you today, and I think it's a huge, pressing issue for Canadian universities.
That wasn't a question. It was my rant. Take it for what it's worth. You give me advice; I give you advice. That's the benefit of coming to a full MP panel. Thank you for listening and taking notes.
Mr. Lee, if you had any slides you wanted to spend some more time on, I'd be willing to cede my last couple of minutes to you so that you could give us some more information.