Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses. We'll have some questions for you here shortly from my colleagues.
I want to comment on this study and every study that this committee has looked at since this committee was established. It comes down to lack of money and control. For the most part, that is every study. In this study, it's about how we can close the gap, and it's going to take money. What we had here today, earlier in committee, was an hour allotted to look at the Beijing influence at our universities, and it was cut short. This study was started late because apparently the Liberals do not want to study this or find answers to Beijing's influence in our institutions. We are talking about billions of taxpayers' dollars that are getting funnelled into research and IP that leaves the country and goes to Beijing. That is the control they have of our IP. Those dollars that we waste on this research could be addressing all of the different issues that we've studied at this committee.
For us to drag our feet because there are some in the Liberal Party who do not want to hear the answers to these questions is a travesty. Over the summer, we will be asking the opposition parties to hopefully support that this study continue throughout the summer because these answers impact everything that this committee does. I believe what we will find is that there is a pattern of looking the other way with dollars leaving our country, which will make Canadians weaker and Beijing stronger because of a misuse of taxpayers' dollars at our institutions to support Beijing's interests.
With that, I will turn the floor over to Gerald to carry on with this study, but I do look forward to a summer of meetings at the science committee.