We started with a motion that mentioned Globalive and that served to show that the government had issued an order to get around the Telecommunications Act, which does not allow foreign control. Now we are getting into pure economics and international trade, almost. As Mr. Garneau said, we must never lose sight of the fact that, when the Telecommunications Act was put in place, it protected Canadian ownership in order to safeguard Canadian sovereignty and identity. As my colleague will probably tell you later, he who controls the medium also controls the message. So it is even more important to protect Canadian ownership in telecommunications.
We have heard a lot of testimony about research and development, innovation and competitiveness. Of course, some witnesses are still doing a significant amount of research and development. Take Bell, for example; we have been told that they invest more per dollar of sales in research and development than ATT. While participants have told us that we are significantly behind in innovation, I have seen no concrete evidence that we are behind in technology.
As for looking for more players in telecommunications through foreign ownership, a number of participants—especially those who are looking at the situation from the outside—do not seem to be considering the link between competition and territory. Population density counts. In Europe, everyone more or less lives in a 100 km 2 area. Setting up or developing in an area that size is not all that difficult.
In broad terms, how far behind are we in technology really? Are we really behind in research and development?