Let me begin by thanking my honourable colleague. I want to say it's been a pleasure to work with you. We have a really good working relationship and we talk very regularly.
You raise a really important point: applied research matters. Let me take this opportunity to recognize the work of the colleges and polytechnics in this area. Because colleges are so embedded in their communities—I'm proud to have Humber College in my riding—they know the communities well. They can thus do a lot of work on social innovation—we have a social innovation fund—but they also respond very quickly to industry's needs. I know that you're a former engineer, and you work very closely with your college. Industry can come in—a small business, a medium-sized business—and can get the answers they need very quickly.
You've also talked about clean tech. This is an area that's extremely important to our government. This is a government that believes in climate change.