Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest, but to only part of the hon. member's speech, I regret to say, because I was called away.
The hon. member discussed the Canada foundation for innovation and its allocations and also, perhaps, the research chairs and the research funding now tied to them. It is very interesting that not only is the federal government providing, as it were, the salaries and that kind of thing for 2,000 researchers and professors across the whole country, but it is also providing research money to get them started, which I think is very important.
I think I have the same concern as my colleague from the NDP who was just speaking. I am concerned about the way in which a program like this—and I will come to the CFI in a moment—is impacting some regions and also some of the smaller institutions. I was very pleased when research moneys were attached to the chairs themselves, because very often a small institution receiving one or two or three of these chairs would find itself faced with additional expenditures simply to take on an extra employee.
However, with regard to the Canada foundation for innovation, I would like to ask my colleague a question. He is interested in the equity of the allocations. So am I.
The purpose of the Canada foundation for innovation is to provide research infrastructure moneys not only to large research institutions but to many others. There is one component of it which is quite different from the research chairs or the money coming from the research granting councils, that 10% which is available to community colleges across Canada.
This is something which is quite new. Normally we think of a distinction between the colleges which are extremely important in rural areas and in smaller communities and the universities with respect to research. I was pleased this time that particularly the applied research role, work which ranges from looking after senior citizens properly through to robotics, is being conducted in colleges.
I have a question for my colleague. What are his thoughts about the fact that the Canada foundation for innovation for the first time reaches our community colleges and is encouraging the sort of applied research they do?