Mr. Speaker, I first will congratulate the hon. member for taking the file as critic for science and technology. I look forward to working with him. I know he was quite adamant on the environment file, despite increasing greenhouse gases under his party's leadership by some 30%.
I would like to say we will take no lessons from a party that cut funding during the last economic downturn, which was nothing compared to the one we just faced a few years ago. The Liberals cut science and technology funding.
The fact is again we see the member saying things like “PEARL is closed”. That is actually incorrect. This is a building that is open. This is an infrastructure building that the federal government funds. I am not sure whether the member voted for it or against it. I am pretty convinced the New Democrats voted against it.
What we want to do is ensure that the tax dollars we are spending on science and technology, at record historic levels, are spent on the needs of the nation. Those needs change. The world faces different challenges from one year to the next. I congratulate my colleagues for recognizing that fact and that we are building capacity to do research, not just at state of the art but in ways that will change the way our social systems work and will change the economic benefits to society.