Mr. Speaker, I was afraid you might have forgotten me, but I can see you had not.
I would like you to know that it is nice to have you back. I wish to thank my hon. colleague for his speech, in which I could feel how truly committed he is to his riding. It was clear to me that the hon. member had very deep roots in the community that he represents here, in the House of Commons.
However, I would like to share my thoughts with him concerning two or three statements he made. The hon. member referred to the lack of advanced technology in his community, and I can easily imagine that high technology industries could be rather scarce in a rural area. This is an issue of great interest to me, and I would like
to ask the hon. member what concrete steps were taken by the government, in his opinion, in support of science and technology?
I am putting the question to him while bearing in mind that consultations were held at both the regional and the national level, and that the government had promised to table a white paper on science and technology. We are in the somewhat paradoxical situation where ministers keep telling us: "Canada is a developed country. Canada is a country of plentiful resources. Canada is rich with brainpower". But when you take a look at government reports-and I will close on this, because I can detect a trace of impatience in you, which is not in your true nature-and consult the National Advisory Board on Science and Technology, you learn that Canada ranks second to last in terms of public and private support for research and development.