This Brief Is Submitted By:          

Canadian Consortium for Research

Topic:   

Innovation and commercialization

Recommendation 1: Please provide a short summary of your recommendation.

The Canadian government must continue its investment in programs and initiatives that create quality jobs and lay the foundations for the long-term economic, social and cultural development of Canada. The CCR recommends that the Government of Canada invest an additional $150 million in base funding for basic research through SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR for each of the next three years. Investing in independent peer-review research will serve the public interest by advancing knowledge and innovation, which facilitates the current economic recovery underway and assures Canada’s long-term prosperity.

Expected cost or savings: From the pull-down menus, please indicate the expected cost or savings of your recommendation to the federal government and the period of time to which the expected cost or savings is related.

                $100 million – $499.9 million

                3 years

 Federal funding: Please provide a precise indication of how the federal government could fund your recommendation. For example, indicate what federal spending should be reallocated, what federal tax measure(s) should be introduced, eliminated or changed, etc.

Making this investment will contribute to quality jobs, new inventions and patents, boost productivity, and increase government revenues over the medium- to long-term.  In addition, the government can rationalize the procurement function further. These savings can create ample fiscal room to fund the three recommendations in this submission.

Intended beneficiaries: Please indicate the groups of individuals, the sector(s) and/or the regions that would benefit by implementation of your recommendation.

Investments in universities and colleges across Canada will help Canadians pursue and complete higher studies and acquire new skills. These investments will also foster the next generation of researchers who will tackle the many economic, social, and cultural challenges, as a key role of basic research is precisely to educate, inspire, and unleash the creativity of the next generation of researchers and their ability to make groundbreaking discoveries. Investing in Canadian researchers will boost the number of PhD graduates, which is still alarmingly low when compared to peer countries.

General impacts: Depending on the nature of your recommendation, please indicate how the standard of living of Canadians would be improved, jobs would be created, people would be trained, etc.

Historically, the “payoffs” of basic research have been many: unanticipated innovations as a result of basic research include the discovery of X-rays, nylon, Teflon, GPS technology, informatics, superconductivity and medical imaging. It is widely recognized that investments in basic research will create more and better-paying jobs, boost productivity, and increase the standard of living for Canadians. As Mike Lazaridis said in a speech at the Perimeter Institute “What we need are those creative people to be left to do creative things… this is the raw material for industry to capitalize”.

Topic:

                Education and Skills Training

Recommendation 2: Please provide a short summary of your recommendation.

The CCR recommends an additional investment in core funding of $30 million per year to expand graduate scholarships and internships. Expanding the Canada Graduate Scholarships by $25 million would fund an additional 1,250 students. Increasing internship initiatives by $5 million so that graduate students can intern with not-for-profit organizations would fund an additional 125 internships per year. Supporting graduate-level teaching, research, and experience is critical to build a foundation for economic and social development, while highly skilled and trained workers drive innovation.

Expected cost or savings: From the pull-down menus, please indicate the expected cost or savings of your recommendation to the federal government and the period of time to which the expected cost or savings is related.

                $10 million – $99.9 million

                3 years

Federal funding: Please provide a precise indication of how the federal government could fund your recommendation. For example, indicate what federal spending should be reallocated, what federal tax measure(s) should be introduced, eliminated or changed, etc.

Making this investment will contribute to the creation of quality jobs, new inventions and patents, boost productivity, and increase government revenues over the medium- to long-term. In addition, the government can rationalize the procurement function further. These savings can create ample fiscal room to fund the three recommendations in this submission.

Intended beneficiaries: Please indicate the groups of individuals, the sector(s) and/or the regions that would benefit by implementation of your recommendation.

The prospect of lower student debt encourages Canadians to pursue graduate-level education, while real-world experience will help them find meaningful research jobs or other high-quality employment. These investments are particularly important for key industry sectors as Canada’s rate of private-sector innovation continues to lag behind that of comparable countries. Particular regions that would benefit from increased funding  include Atlantic Canada, southwestern Ontario, and Saskatchewan where growing high-tech centres require more employees with graduate-level skills and training.

 

General impacts: Depending on the nature of your recommendation, please indicate how the standard of living of Canadians would be improved, jobs would be created, people would be trained, etc.

Increased funding for graduate scholarships and internships benefits Canadians and employers across Canada and establishes stable, well-paid employment and boosts economic growth. The broad impacts are better jobs and higher productivity, while investing in doctoral students especially will help close the gap in graduation rates vis-à-vis those in peer countries. Better-funded graduates are also less likely to have student debt, making them more able to contribute economically.

 

Topic:  

                Infrastructure

Recommendation 3: Please provide a short summary of your recommendation.

The CCR recommends the government invest an additional $20 million in base funding per year over the next three years to support two key building blocks of Canada’s national research infrastructure. The CCR proposes an increase of $10 million in funding for Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and $10 million for Statistics Canada. This investment will enhance LAC’s capacity to collect and preserve the country’s rich documentary heritage, while investing in Canada’s internationally renowned data collection agency furthers researchers’ ability to generate reliable knowledge and inform policy.

Expected cost or savings: From the pull-down menus, please indicate the expected cost or savings of your recommendation to the federal government and the period of time to which the expected cost or savings is related.

                $10 million – $99.9 million

                3 years

 

Federal funding: Please provide a precise indication of how the federal government could fund your recommendation. For example, indicate what federal spending should be reallocated, what federal tax measure(s) should be introduced, eliminated or changed, etc.

Making this investment will contribute to the creation of quality jobs, new inventions and patents, boost productivity, and increase government revenues over the medium- to long-term.  In addition, the government can rationalize the procurement function further. These savings can create ample fiscal room to fund the three recommendations in this submission.

Intended beneficiaries: Please indicate the groups of individuals, the sector(s) and/or the regions that would benefit by implementation of your recommendation.

Researchers, graduate students, policy makers, historians, genealogists, Aboriginal communities, and the general public benefit from the important artistic, historical, and cultural heritage collected and made available by Library and Archives Canada. Statistics Canada’s surveys are crucial not only to the research community and enhance researchers’ work, but government, industry, business, not-for-profits, municipalities and communities depend on these surveys to develop reliable, informed decisions and policies.

 

General impacts: Depending on the nature of your recommendation, please indicate how the standard of living of Canadians would be improved, jobs would be created, people would be trained, etc.

Investing in Canada’s national research infrastructure is key to the country’s prosperity and standard of living. Investing in Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and Statistics Canada lays the foundation for the creation of all kinds of research in a variety of fields and for many sectors, leading to broad economic, social, and environmental benefits. Investing in LAC   creates broad beneficial impacts as Canadians can discover their history, particularly as LAC seeks to make more of its documentary heritage available on-line to all citizens.

Please use this page if you wish to provide more explanation about your recommendation(s).

The Canadian Consortium for Research (CCR) is the largest umbrella advocacy organization in Canada whose primary concerns are the funding of research in all disciplines and support for post-secondary education. CCR (http://en.ccr-ccr.ca/) consists of 18 organizations that represent more than 50,000 researchers and 500,000 students in a wide range of disciplines across Canada.

 

The CCR recommends the government invests for each of the next three years: 1) $150 million in base funding to increase investments in basic research through Canada’s granting councils; 2) an additional $30 million in graduate student funding in the form of scholarships and internships; and 3) an increase of $20 million in core funding divided equally between Library and Archives Canada and Statistics Canada.

 

A key role of basic research is to educate, inspire, and unleash the creativity of the next generation of researchers and their ability to make groundbreaking discoveries. By doing so, we make a vital long-term contribution to our future creative capacity and assure Canada’s future prosperity. Relative to our population, however, Canada produces significantly fewer graduates at the crucial doctoral level than peer countries.

 

Canada’s granting councils are widely admired internationally and form the bedrock of support for basic research in Canada. Yet very many researchers rated highly by international standards of excellence still cannot be funded; in health research for example, only about 20% of such researchers are typically funded.  Increased investments in basic, medical research will improve explorations of illness and prevention, which is crucial as Canada’s population ages. Finally, implementing open access policies would enable wider dissemination of Canadian research.

 

Facing significant burdens of high tuition fees and rising debt loads, additional scholarship and internship funding is key for Canada’s graduate students as they seek to complete their studies in a timely fashion and make the transition into the labour market. Canada’s continued high youth unemployment rates necessitate a more robust active labour market policy.

 

Investing in Canada’s national research infrastructure is key to the country’s prosperity and standard of living. Additional funding for Library and Archives Canada is crucial to ensure the vitality of its collections and its ability to make its materials accessible. Additional funding will also enable LAC’s digitization initiatives as it seeks to make more of its materials available on-line for the benefit of the research community and Canadians across the country. These initiatives are initially very costly but necessary to promote knowledge, innovation, and prosperity. Canada’s statistical agency is similarly a cornerstone institution which generates fundamental and reliable knowledge so that informed and evidence-based policy decisions can be taken for the benefit of Canadians across the country in small and large communities.

CCR submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance – 31 July 2013.PDF