Very briefly, Madam Chair, because I didn't have the opportunity to respond to the questions from the previous round, when it comes to rural and remote communities, we've invested significant amounts of money in the regional development agencies, and these agencies exist across the country to help small businesses with the health care crisis we're dealing with.
Again, I want to underscore that the oil and gas sector is going to be part of the transition. We work very closely with them, and I have a great working relationship with Seamus O'Regan as well. We understand this area has been hit hard, not only by the health care crisis, but also with regard to the price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The sector is facing many challenges that are not necessarily within our control.
To respond to the questions asked by the parliamentary secretary around science and science mobilization, I think it's a remarkable story. As a government we believe in science. We reinstated the mandatory long-form census. Our government made historic investments in science. We have some of the best world-class researchers and scientists, and they are empowered and engaged with vaccine development, therapeutics and other countermeasures. All of it is designed to help and protect Canadians, and we're very excited about the work they're doing.
VIDO-InterVac, the one that was highlighted, is the international vaccine centre in Saskatchewan, where they are now looking at building up clinical trial capacity.
We've made sure we not only mobilize scientists but also give them the resources for clinical trials for the development process, and ultimately we want to focus on broad biomanufacturing production as well. We've invested over $1 billion in this initiative to complement the investments we've made in the past.
We've also ramped up our production facility at the National Research Council.
These are part of the different initiatives that were announced by the Prime Minister and by Minister Hajdu as well, on top of the testing initiatives, the immunity task force, and Genome Canada. They are all designed to mobilize the science community and our researchers to deal with this incredible challenge we're facing.