Thank you, and thanks to all the witnesses for being with us this evening.
I'd like to continue on the theme of the last question asked by Mr. Blanchette-Joncas. This is kind of the elephant in the room, or whatever that's driving this difficulty with doing research in French, not just here in Canada but around the world. I just pulled up some data that showed that French researchers in France, in one decade from 1987-97, went from publishing 25% in French to 15%. They lost 10% of publishing in French, and this is in France.
What we are tasked with here, at this committee, is trying to find ways for the federal government to assist French research in Canada. I wanted to ask you, Professor Cardinal, and maybe the other three if we have time, what can the federal government do to turn this big boat around, when you have researchers around the world wanting to publish in English, not just for the awards but for the advancement of their careers? It's all about citations, and it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy that if you publish in English, that will work out better because English is the lingua franca of science.
I could go on, but I shouldn't. I want to hear from you. Please go on from where you were speaking before about what the federal government can do to change this.