Minister, I'm sorry to cut you off. I think you got your point across. The table says otherwise, though.
I have the chart here. I'd be happy to share it with you. I am especially concerned with another row in the same chart, about those engaged in research and developmentâdirect scientists. It reads to me as if these are federal front-line researchers. In that category, there was a drop of another 2,602 personnel in research and development when the government changed over.
The 2018 numbers show that there are currently 3,507 fewer scientists employed by this government than there were in the previous government. It's difficult to believe that this is solely because of retirements. I'm happy you're having a retreat, but this is two and a half years in the making, and you now have 3,500 fewer scientists. Why?