Mr. Speaker, a Canadian neutron facility would be a national centre where Canadians would build links between researchers and various disciplines to lay the ground for novel ideas and discovery. It would be a centre where new Canadian researchers would be educated in the practice of neutron scattering. Canadians could attempt truly novel experiments that are difficult to do at a production user facility. It would be a centre where neutron beam technology could be applied to meet the strategic needs of Canada with access policies and a mission outlook aligned with Canadian values.
It is totally unacceptable that the government should be proud that we are spending Canadian dollars to construct a neutron source in another country. It is time the federal government showed the vision and commitment necessary to build a neutron source for Canada, one with the power and the flexibility to meet the needs of Canadian science and engineering for the next 40 years, updating our capability to exploit cold neutron methods for research on the materials of the 21st century, such as polymers, membranes and proteins, electronic devices, nanotechnologies, foods and drugs--