Thanks, Mr. Chair.
First and foremost, thank you to both doctors for presenting tonight. It's a great inspirational kickoff to the first study. Thanks again to Member Cannings who put this study in front of us to get us to where we are this evening. It's a terrific start to what we're doing.
I want to start with Dr. Nemer's opening statement. Something in her speech caught me. She said, “Science and research will be needed even more in the postpandemic era to help us build healthy, safe and sustainable societies while addressing the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change.”
That caught me, Dr. Nemer, through you, Mr. Chair, because I think that 90% of Canadians agree with your statement.
How do we ensure that government policy continues to rely on science and to be guided by science, whether it's on health-related matters, which have dominated, obviously, our discussion over the last two years with the pandemic, or any other government programs in other ministries?
How do we ensure that we, as a government, continue to rely on science and that science is front and centre in the decision-making process, rather than what we have seen from a very small, vocal minority of people who rely on social media?
You can surf Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or any of those platforms. We have found that those who don't rely on science are questioning climate change. They are questioning the vaccines. There is literally a flat earth society out there now.
How do we collectively, at all levels of government, deal with that issue from an education perspective and from an investment and funding perspective to ensure that it remains a small minority?