Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Dr. Carty, I want to apologize to you on behalf of this committee. The fact is that our committee voted to have you appear before the committee in order to better determine what is the best direction for the role of the national science advisor and its potential synergy with the Science, Technology and Innovation Council, and how, in broader terms, that fits into a general science strategy for our country.
You're somebody who has served as a senior academic for 27 years, ten years heading the NRC. Having been our national science advisor, you have a lot of information and knowledge and expertise and perspective to bring to that.
Some of us wanted to hear that perspective and to benefit from that. Others--who as members of Parliament have expenses that in most cases have exceeded yours, and in all cases do not have the same level of transparency around their travel or hospitality expenses or the same need to disclose that you as a public servant have had--have hidden behind that veil and that hypocrisy to attack you unnecessarily and unfairly.
So I apologize to you, Dr. Carty. It's difficult to get good people and to retain good people in the public service, and parliamentarians have a responsibility to not debase public servants further. When they want to provide good advice to a committee, or good advice based on science to a Prime Minister, we ought to encourage that. We should not be attacking our institutions, as it further reduces the capacity for our government and our public service to function together for the betterment of all Canadians.
Dr. Carty, on the role that you see for the national science advisor and the synergy with the government's strategy relative to the Science, Technology and Innovation Council, you've said that you see a synergistic role between the two. You've indicated that some other countries are in fact pursuing that kind of role.
Do you see a commercial value to Canada on the research and development and commercialization, for instance, of clean energy and clean environmental technologies? Some people have indicated, and some experts have indicated, internationally and within Canada, that this could be one of the fastest-growing areas of the 21st century economy. We have a job, as a committee, to try to understand the role between research and development, commercialization and competitiveness.
Do you see that as one of the areas we should be focused on as a country, trying to position ourselves in the whole area of clean tech--environmental technologies and clean energy?