Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health has had a very significant and active participation on this file and health. He is a great representative for his riding. We have had many discussions.
The world scientists need the very best places. Some of these facilities require state of the art ventilation, electron microscopes and particle accelerators. If we are not able to provide that type of equipment, then the researchers will not come here. We, therefore, have provided that type of equipment and we have kicked in another $750 million for it.
However, we cannot have leaky roofs at our universities leaking on the brand new electron microscopes. When we had our prebudgetary consultations, the number one issue we heard from our research community, our colleges and universities, was infrastructure. Under the previous government, universities and colleges were allowed to lapse and became in disrepair that some estimate is between $5 billion and $10 billion.
This government took that opportunity to put $2 billion, matched by the provinces or other partners, which equals $4 billion that will go into universities and colleges to give our researchers the very best buildings with the very best equipment. Add that on top of our new money and existing money for scholarships and research programs, we have it all together under one stool. It is the best in the world and it will only get better.