Thank you.
I'll start with Dr. Hranilovic. You talked about the overall ecosystem the universities are in right now. It's a difficult one financially for everyone, it seems. You also mentioned tuition. When I worked at UBC, I would travel to research stations in far-flung places, and they always seemed to be full of students from Europe who were on their summer break. Because they didn't need to pay tuition, they didn't need to work between semesters and they were there volunteering.
Today we're talking about the situation in which we aren't providing enough support for graduate students. I think people forget—and I keep trying to remind everyone—that on top of everything else they have to pay for—food, housing and everything—they have to pay tuition.
Now they're faced with a $20,000 stipend or something like that, and they have to pay $10,000 in tuition. I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on why Canada hasn't gone the route of Europe and reduced tuition. In fact, over the last 30 years we've reduced overall federal and provincial support for post-secondary education, which has forced universities to increase tuition.
I know it's a big question, but where would you sit on that in terms of the best strategy for us to maintain students and encourage them to stay here in Canada?