Mr. Speaker, it is very important to put this motion into context. The Conservative Party and its predecessors, the Alliance and the Reform Party, have consistently shown no interest in this area of public policy.
The member who just asked the question about the Trudeau Foundation illustrated that fact. This is not one of the foundations we are talking about. We are talking about the research capacity of the nation. In the mid-1990s, the brain drain, which we heard from that side and throughout all of the country, was a serious problem. Our level of productivity as a nation and the productivity of each individual Canadian was very low. The government of the day had to do something about it.
The party over there consistently, whenever lists of grants are produced from the granting councils, goes through the grants and criticizes them one after another despite the fact that they were allocated according to a peer review process. These foundations, not the foundation my colleague referred to, were set up to deal with that matter, to bring young Canadians back, scientists, teachers, and professionals, and to keep young Canadians in the country, and to raise the productivity of the nation. That has happened. A very large piece there was the long term effect of these foundations.
Ask the members, Mr. Speaker, I know you know some of them, whether any college or university in their ridings does not like and appreciate what the Canada Foundation for Innovation and these others foundations have done for them. They have done great things. They are accountable, as my colleague has said. I accept the fact these foundations are accountable. They are not technically accountable to Parliament, a very fine point, but they are fully accountable. Does she not agree they have done wonderful public work?