Thank you for the question.
You're touching on, I think, a really key question that all Canadians and in fact citizens around the world want to ask: Is their taxpayer money being invested as well as possible? In other words, it's used to fund the best research. That's what we want: the best impact, the best results for Canadians.
What we have found over decades and decades is that the minute you base that on something other than serious peer review or merit review, it leads to trouble, and you don't get the best results. The tried and true method is to not try to interfere in the process, to not try to put a thumb on the scale, but rather to allow a robust peer review or merit review system whereby experts come together.
Often, as we found in Canada, we invite experts from other countries and so on, such that we do the best we can in terms of the taxpayer funding that supports our work. It's, I think, worked really well, and I think it's a mistake to ever move away from that. If we do, it will not provide expected results and it will really confuse why we invest in research and innovation. We invest in research and innovation to enhance quality of life, to build a better future and to build a better society, and we can't do that based on periodic momentary preferences.