Thank you. As the population ages and individuals live longer, we recognize an epidemic of Alzheimer's disease and dementia will challenge our health care system in Canada, and globally as well.
Canada is recognized internationally for its strength in areas of brain research, including Alzheimer's disease, and I stated before to the committee that through the leadership of Dr. Beaudet, we've been able to sign on with seven other countries in collective research in this area.
Our Budget 2010 goes even further towards advancing our understanding of brain disorder with the investment of $100 million in matching funds for the Canada Brain Research Fund. I have discussed this with the president of the CIHR, Dr. Beaudet, who is with us today, and our hope of meeting this challenge rests, in part, on a coordinated international research effort to hunt for the clues around the early events in Alzheimer's and dementia. I understand that slowing down the progression of the disease by just two years for each affected person would reduce the cumulative cost of Alzheimer's, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research is moving ahead on a plan to do just that.
As well, with the international collaborative research strategy for Alzheimer's disease, with the partnering funding, Canada is also playing a leading role in global work to address the costs of the disease and the research and treatment of it.
Unless there is more you want to add to that, Dr. Beaudet...Canada is leading in this area of research, in my view.
Thank you.