Good afternoon.
I was very impressed with the two tours we had this morning at the Synchrotron and at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. I was fascinated to see the huge financial outlay and the wealth of patience that are needed to do research. Believe me when I say that I admire your work greatly.
I have a question for Genome Prairie. You certainly caught my attention with one of your key observations, namely that genomics tools can be applied to address world issues such as global food and energy shortages, climate change challenges, and environmental sustainability.
If we as politicians could solve just a tiny part of those problems, it would be a considerable achievement. With all the scientists in the world who are doing research into the same issues, to what extent does Canada have the economic capacity and the scientific resources to get involved and to make its mark?
It is a considerable challenge and you may well tell me that you are excited by it. But what can we as politicians do to move research forward so that it produces results? What do we do about the impression that budgets for the area are bottomless pits and that we will never have the population base to sustain them?