Thank you for the wonderful testimony we've heard today.
Thank you, Kirsty, for bringing up the issue of a chief science officer and what that person could do in terms of promoting women in STEM. It's something that we've been working on a lot. Actually my colleague, Kennedy Stewart tabled a private member's bill to create the position of the parliamentary science officer. I think absolutely that's one of the mandates that this person should have if ever that position is created.
Last week we had somewhat of an uproar about the fact that the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame didn't actually have any women nominees, so we had two women step down from the selection committee around this. I think it's something that really brought awareness to the fact that these awards and these places are very male dominated and continue to be. I think there's no reason why we shouldn't have female nominees. I mean Roberta Bondar or Patricia Baird are some of the female scientists that we absolutely could have nominated for the science hall of fame.
What could the Government of Canada be doing to encourage female role models, particularly in these kinds of institutions where we really recognize scientific excellence?
I guess we can start with Ms. Schmidt and then work around the table.