Mr. Speaker, I congratulate NSERC and SSHRC on following through on their commitments to strengthen northern research. The announcement of six university chairs for northern research, representing a $6 million investment, is a major step in the right direction.
I also congratulate the universities receiving the chairs, McGill, Carleton, Wilfrid Laurier, Laval, Manitoba and Alberta, along with the recipients themselves. I am pleased that the research spans the physical, life and social sciences.
The NSERC-SSHRC task force on the state of northern research also proposed scholarships, strategic research projects, partnerships between universities and northern communities, and new equipment and infrastructure to reinvigorate northern research in Canada.
I hope this first step means that we are well on the way to systematically strengthening northern research. This is a polar country. We need strong northern science and it should be one of our special contributions to global research.