I agree. Thank you.
That's a great segue into a question for Professor Kambhampati.
You're an award-winning Canadian scientist, and you've been refused federal government grants on the grounds of a lack of diversity. Your work explores cutting-edge laser science, a field that spans everything from telecom to medicine, and you believe Canada could become a world leader in that field. Your application to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, NSERC, was turned down because the council said, “the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion considerations in the application were deemed insufficient.”
When we're not focused on research itself—cutting-edge research like you're working on in your facility—that Canada could actually become a leader in and we focus instead on DEI, what's the economic impact of that, especially in tech hubs in places like Kitchener, where I'm from?