Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you to our witnesses.
Mr. Bouchard, thank you for being here and for your great work.
I want to continue with some of the conversation that's happened today, and you described your "loving appreciation” for the “crazy amounts of money” that the United States spends on research.
At the same time, I think you might hear from others, perhaps on the innovation committee, talking about the same crazy amounts of money that Canadian government invests in supporting research and development and innovation in driving it.
I'd like to understand that gap. I think it's important to start off by underscoring that Canada has an incredible education system. It is the envy of the world. We have incredibly talented people and a well-developed system of education that consistently ranks high. Yet at the same time we do see the talent gap widen between Canada and our OECD partners.
How do we bridge that gap in supporting the innovation that is needed? As you mentioned in a previous comment, the Canadian economy is focused a lot on SMEs. How do we bridge that gap between this great investment in research that we are doing, that perhaps, yes, we should continue to do more on, and ensuring that these talented researchers and workers of the future economies are going to stay in Canada, are going to help develop the next generation of technologies and innovation that are going to support our economy?