Mr. Speaker, I would agree with my hon. colleague on his latter point. In terms of research, I too received an email from somebody very involved in research in my province and a national leadership role across the country. It said, “--I have had the chance to digest a bit more information about the impact of the proposal on research. In brief--it's not good!!!” One, two, three exclamation points. Three exclamation points.
We came so far eight years ago when we invested in CFI, more when the granting councils created CIHR and Genome Canada, and the Canada research chairs, all of the things we did. That was at a time when the United States was reducing its commitment to science.
As signalled in Mr. Obama's speech, the United States is now putting a real focus on science at a time when the Canadian government is levelling down its research commitment. It spite of what it says, it is levelling it down. The tri-councils, NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR are losing money. This is critical for Canada. This government needs to accept that fact and stop telling people it is not the case. It is the case. We are losing our function, purpose, and ability to attract and retain researchers in Canada. It is going to cost us big time.