Madam Speaker, I can see that the Minister of State for Science and Technology is a very slick salesman on these matters. However, I am trusting the scores of scientists who are sending me letters and contacting me personally saying that the government is fundamentally changing how we support and approach science in this country. It is shifting from scientists asking the questions and deciding funding to politicians asking the questions and basing funding on whims.
I worry that we are turning the scientific approach and innovation in this country into some kind of sausage machine where we put the meat in one end and the sausage comes out the other. That is not how science works, and that is what scientists are telling me.
Earlier in the day, the minister of state stated that the MRS cuts were solely decided by NSERC, but I doubt this. However, does he think these cuts are a mistake?