Good morning, gentlemen. It is a pleasure to meet you. I would like to talk a little about funding for research and development.
Mr. Stewart, you told us that, since 1997, this area has been well funded, even spectacularly, I gather. On the other hand, I was reading that the vibrancy of research and development is often calculated as a ratio of the GDP. In those terms, Canada's ratio of research and development to GDP is below the average among OECD countries. It has been 2% for the last five years.
Yet we see that, in a comparison of tax credit rates in 36 countries, Canada's is third highest for research and development. So that is a strong point.
Are the government's efforts enough? If so, are they beginning to bear fruit? The figures seem quite spectacular, but we know that research and development are really very important, the heart of the matter.
We know that the European Union spends a great deal on research and development, even with major international projects. The countries of Europe are at the same level as the United States. Is it your impression that the government's efforts are enough?