Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question and the very thoughtful issues posed by the hon. member.
With respect to his first comment, I too would have liked the opportunity to have avoided this kind of confrontational environment and found a place where we could sit down in a circle to seriously discuss where we are going in terms of health research and how we could balance the different interests in society today, one being the public interest and the public good, the other being the fact that, yes, we cannot as a nation deny that we need private sector involvement in the development of new products and new technologies, as well as ensuring Canada's commercial advantage in the world economy.
However, why do we see a role for the private sector in the bill in terms of driving the research agenda? Our point is very clearly this. There is a role for government to balance the private sector and the public research communities. This bill, in our view, does not make clear the lines. It does not differentiate between those priorities.
What we have said over and over again is that it is the role of government to ensure that the board, the governing council and the structure that will be put in place will not be geared to allow private commercial interests to determine the agenda or to use public funds for profitability.
I think that is something we surely can agree on, that it is the role of government to fund our academic community, to fund our health research organizations and to develop partnerships appropriate in that context, but not for a bill to outline from the start that the commercial sector in the country has an advantage or is able to set the agenda and use public funds to advance private gain. I think the member would have concerns with that.
I would hope that we would at least understand the role of government in terms of public funds for advancing a public health care system and working on public health research which addresses the root causes of ill health and ensures that we have a much more comprehensive and broad based approach to these very difficult issues.
No one is opposed to the private sector being involved in research. What we are questioning today is the role of government in supporting, aiding and abetting commercialization and privatization to the detriment of the public organization of health care and serving the public good in the final analysis.