I've heard some people say, “Oh, don't think of the budget as a snapshot. Think of the movie.” It's a good line. Frankly, we've seen this movie before. We saw it in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Frankly, that was when a committee much like this, from all sides of the House, came together and made it an urgent priority for the Chrétien-Martin government to invest in successive research investments. We need to see that movie, not the movie watching top talent leave.
I cite the example of Dr. Panchanathan, who is now the chair of the National Science Foundation, one of the largest granting foundations in the United States. He was a young professor at the University of Ottawa in 1994. He got snagged away to Arizona State University, which is now a world leader in commercializable research. He then got picked by the President of the United States to head up the National Science Foundation.
Do you know what his challenge is this year? It's how to spend an additional $1.5 billion this year in research. It's how to set up 50 innovation zones—one in every state—linked to universities in every state. Those are the challenges he's dealing with, whereas our granting councils and our university presidents are having to say, “Would you just hang on for another year?”
That's why we're saying the fall economic statement is going to be a really important signal to the research community, not just to the graduate students, but to the principal investigators as well. We need to see the full package.