Thank you very much. That is a very interesting question.
We have been investing in science and technology for a number of years. Quite frankly, if you take a look at how our R and D system is viewed globally, people look at it much as they look at our banking system now and say we've done some things right. We've invested heavily in research and development infrastructure. We've invested in research and development chairs. We've gone from a situation in the 1990s in which we had a brain drain to a situation now in which we're attracting some of the best and the brightest to Canada.
Our base and fundamental position is very strong. What the U.S. will be investing in that type of R and D infrastructure through the Obama administration is really quite remarkable, and it will be hard for almost anybody to match that. So we have to be careful, and we have to use what we've been building and what we have built over the last ten years to our advantage. That's why, in my statement, I was referring to some of the programs that we're putting in place, which will allow us access to other international partners.
From a Canadian perspective, we produce 4% of the global R and D, so 96% of it is residing outside our country. How we can make those connections will be very important. We have those tools, and we're building on those tools. It would always be nice to have more money, but quite frankly the focus now is on the short term, and we will be looking at ways in which we can use our network to build into the future.