Mr. Speaker, I have a very simple question for my colleague. He listed a number of areas in which the government has invested in research, but he was actually quoting the moneys that were put into infrastructure for research. He is not talking about the moneys that our scientists need to actually do the research. That is the problem and that is the challenge we have, because the absence of investment in our scientists will cause them to leave.
In the United States, President Obama is investing $10 billion into basic research and science, and other money on top of that. India, China, Brazil and other nations are investing in these areas now. The failure to do this will result in our scientists leaving Canada.
The other big hole in his argument is the fact that he is quoting moneys that were already allocated for the next two to three years. The government did not invest new money for groups like Genome Canada and others to enable them to plan in the future for the three, five, seven and ten year cycles that are needed for basic research.
Would the member not acknowledge that failure and commit to actually change the government's flawed research and development proposals?