Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I would have to say that had I been giving a different speech, this is one of the most significant developments not only in research, but in the application of research results in Canada in recent years.
This is a confederation. The strength of a confederation is that all the different parts of it have a chance to be creative. If one lives in Nova Scotia, one can be creative within the Nova Scotian context. If one lives in Alberta, one can be creative within the Alberta context. In addition, because it is a confederation, one can be creative at the national level. One can take an idea in Nova Scotia or an idea in Quebec and bring it up to the national level and then to the international level.
The danger of confederation as far as research is concerned is that if we are not careful we will have lots and lots of people all doing their own thing, all reinventing the wheel and so on, without this co-ordination.
The Canadian institutes for health research will be linked centres all the way across the country that will draw on the expertise of their regions and feed it in to the national scene so that when there is a good idea somewhere it will not be lost. By the way, it will not simply be lost in the morass of information that exists in our world. Nor will it be lost by someone going to the United States or some other jurisdiction. It will capture that idea and bring it forward to the benefit of all Canadians.
The federal government has always been the main engine of medical research, but there has always been other research. All sorts of hospitals, institutes and organizations are doing research of some sort. The purpose of this new system of Canadian institutes for health is to capture all that creativity to the benefit of all Canadians and, I do not think it is immodest, to the benefit of the health of everyone on the globe. I thank my colleague for her question.