I can absolutely do that with your permission, Mr. Chair. The knowledge infrastructure program is actually a science and technology file, whose main estimates we're not talking about, but with your permission, I'd be happy to comment on the knowledge infrastructure.
This was a program where the Prime Minister asked us not only to look after the science and technology strategy for the nation and to make sure that it wasn't derailed, but at the same time to also look at any opportunities to create and protect jobs in the very short term, because science and technology, obviously, is an opportunity for a strong economy—but in many cases in the future, not necessarily today.
So the knowledge infrastructure program, I think, was a brilliant idea where, as a federal government, we put up $2 billion. The parameters were to rebuild the research capacity of our colleges and universities all across the country. It had to be matched by provinces, territories, and the private sector, and sometimes the colleges and universities themselves. We actually ended up spending just over $5 billion on over 500 projects all across Canada. I've had the fortunate opportunity to have seen some of these buildings, and they are astonishing. In some cases, they're brand new buildings with brand new classrooms and teaching facilities. In other cases there are multi-disciplinary labs, where you will see not just statisticians and chemists, but also engineers and people dealing with medical devices, with optics, and stem cell research, all of whom are literally working side by side in a very big laboratory—again pushing the collaborative partnerships.
This, along with some of our other programs, such as the Vanier and Banting postdoctoral fellowships and the Canada excellence research chairs, are all programs that were designed to increase our research capacity as a nation, building up the buildings as it were. We also put money into the CFI to put new equipment in those buildings, and, with these other programs I just mentioned, we are now attracting scientists from around the world and, in some cases, their entire teams.
That does a bunch of things. It puts the inventions and incremental innovations in our country, which means that the patent, should there be any, and the intellectual property and job spinoffs, will very likely be in our country. It also allows for an extremely positive educational opportunity for our next generation of scientists and entrepreneurs as they are trained by these folks.
So we have come up with a nice organization that keeps our brightest minds here and attracts the brightest minds from around the world. In the case of the automotive sector at McMaster, we stole a brilliant mind—probably the best on the planet—from the United States.
Then we also train the next generation, maintaining our capacity that way. Canada now has a brain gain, and I'm absolutely convinced, and I'm sure you are too, that the high quality jobs of the future will come from science and technology and research—and most importantly, the development of that research, the transfer of that knowledge out of the laboratories, out of the minds of our folks and onto the factory floors to be sold to the living rooms and hospitals. I'm so committed to that. I can tell you that we have a responsibility. We have an obligation as a nation to move that knowledge out to the hospitals of the world—if that's the case—helping people all around the world, but also improving prosperity here at home in doing so.
The knowledge infrastructure program was a great leap forward in terms of bricks and mortar, including the equipment through CFI, and then through other programs for people to use that equipment.