Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member from the Northwest Territories, who certainly knows firsthand the need for polar research.
As I mentioned, a lot of us attended the session delivered by Dr. Vincent last week. He is a renowned international polar researcher and he made a very clear point to us. Somebody asked why we should invest money in research in the Arctic and not the Antarctic. His reply was that we have a very vested interest in the direct geography of Canada. The Arctic is Canada's and if, at this point in time, we want to be putting a claim on the Arctic for resource extraction, we need to be getting serious about putting a lot more money into supporting our researchers to identify ways to not only protect the Arctic but make sure that we benefit from the discoveries.
There are incredible discoveries to be made in the Arctic. We need to be infusing a lot more money now. Right now, our northern polar research station is the furthest north. If we do not continue the funding, we are going to lose that and other scientists from around the world are going to try to fill that void. It is absolutely absurd at this point in time, with the importance of the Arctic to Canada, that we do not step up the pace and give more money instead of cutting.