Mr. Speaker, these numbers are not made up. We are all very well aware. We put the government on probation and added very clear conditions to this budget and to our acceptance of it because we know that the government is extremely adept at what we call the smoke and mirrors trick. It puts something out front and it thinks everyone will be lured into believing it is so.
However, the granting councils have been cut. They say so. Every researcher and scientist have been on the Hill in the last three weeks complaining about the cuts.
International magazines, like Nature Magazine, are talking about science in retreat in Canada. Scientists everywhere are talking about the fact that when we give them money to build a building, but they cannot put people in the building, do research in the building and do not have any ability to maintain the work they do in that building, the building itself is useless.
The smoke and mirrors are cute and this building things that are shovel-ready is important, but those are short term jobs. We are talking about long term jobs in a very competitive world in which Canada will need to be smart and in which research and development will be the coinage of the future. That boat is leaving and Canada is not on it.