Canada's stance on the mystery machine

We would support sending another message into deep space to await another response. Maybe in another 9 years, if they communicate again and tell us what it actually does, we can attempt it. But at the moment, if we don’t know what it does, and is far beyond our technological ability, it isn’t worth it. This is especially true if we only have 3 months to acquire 5 trillion dollars and mobilize the resources and manpower necessary for this operation. There is also the question of where to construct it, the country that builds it will have the greatest control of the knowledge that comes out of it and this could easily lead to bad feelings between developed nations and possibly war.
I personally would suggest putting together a small team of the world’s best scientists and have them commence research on the technology. The technology would be fully accessible to all participating governments and select pieces can be withheld for safety reasons.. Meanwhile we can send out the new signal and await a response, and maybe next time we will be more prepared for the project.
The risk, money, and short time frame are not my only reasons for rejecting this project. The world just doesn’t have the money to undertake this project. The whole global economy is still in a slump, with many governments (including ours) are struggling to control budgets and rebuild a strong economy.
Canada has fortify its economy before we can undertake this kind of project and that won’t be for several years. We also have to reestablish the social safety net and replace outdated infrastructure. The social safety net will cost a lot to maintain each year while infrastructure replacement estimates are still being calculated (but are likely to be high).  We also have the tough task of reforming the economy so that it functions than the previous model, while keeping environmental concerns in mind.
If anything, the world should spend 5 trillion dollars on solving environmental issues and global warming rather than spending it on a piece of machinery, whose function we don’t even know and could do as much bad as good.

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada