Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his very important question. He has raised something that is valid. These regulations have been out for about five years. The process is ongoing and I am looking forward to when they do come before committee.
In the member's previous statement, he talked about the cuts in research overall. As a matter of fact, there have been massive increases in the amount of money our government is putting toward research. I want to run through some of those very important things.
With respect to the knowledge infrastructure program, in the 2009 budget, there is over $2 billion. For clean energy technologies, which I think everyone supports, there is $1 billion over five years. For the Canada Foundation for Innovation, there is another $750 million. For the Canada Health Infoway, which is very important for electronic health records, there is $500 million. To modernize our federal labs, there is $250 million. For the industrial research assistance program, there is $200 million over two years. This government is getting it done.
One of the things that was close to my heart when I was on the industry committee was the Canadian Space Agency. There were no raises in funding when the member for Westmount--Ville-Marie was head of the Canadian Space Agency. This year the minister has put an extra $110 million into the Canadian Space Agency, something of which all of us in this House should be very proud.