Canadian Budget - Where's the R&D?

Yesterday we had a look at the science funding sutation south of the border, today we look up north.

In their new budget, the Tories have allotted some extra cash for graduate-student scholarships and university research. The increase will amount to an additional 40% for postsecondary education which now stands at $3.2-billion per year. This includes 1,000 new scholarships for masters and PhD students. Remember, up north all the schools are public and so their budget is set in part by the federal and provincial governments. So in all it sounds good ... right? From the Globe and Mail:

The boost comes at a time when the provinces have been pushing Ottawa to provide money that, they say, was cut back by the former Liberal government.

Universities and colleges say they need cash from all levels of government to keep their buildings operating, lower class sizes and remain competitive.

Some expressed disappointment yesterday that Ottawa is holding off on funding for a year -- and said that, even when the money flows, it will fall short of what is needed.

Jim Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, said education funding needs to get back to 1992 levels, and that would require another $1.9-billion annually.

And how about straight research funding?

Ottawa promised $105-million to seven centres of excellence, which include the Brain Research Centre at the University of British Columbia and the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University.

The three federal granting councils -- the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada -- will share $85-million to fund researchers and attract new academics to the country.

Hmm. Not so good. One comment at the G&M sums it up:

This is a disaster for the Canadian research agenda. The government increases for agencies like CIHR (which is the primary federal agency supporting health research) are 5%. The agency has so little money that it cannot support 6 out of every 7 scientists that apply to it. To add insult to injury, the government has cherry-picked 7 research institutions to recieve $105 million. They are geographically sprinkled across the nation from Halifax to Vancouver and some barely exist. It's difficult to understand the rationale for giving preferential treatment to such institutions in a non-competitive, pork-barrelled manner when their 6 out of 7 of their researchers will not be able to secure funds for their work.

This government is supposedly about free-markets, the knowledge economy, excellence and transparency. It would be nice if their policies at least reflected one of these qualities!!