Yes, I absolutely agree. That's an excellent point.
Doing basic research, as you say, means investing in the development of future technologies and stimulating innovations in healthcare. This is true for all fields, but particularly for healthcare. It is how new therapeutic avenues are discovered that ultimately lead to new treatments and new drugs.
Over the past decades, we have seen a downturn, even a decline, in research investment, and we have seen the potential consequences on vaccine development. The newspapers have mentioned that Canada has lost a lot of its reputation internationally in terms of its ability to develop vaccines.
I think it's time to reinvest massively in basic research so that we can rebuild our entire ecosystem and better position ourselves internationally.