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DISSENTING OPINION OF THE BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS
TO THE INDUSTRY COMMITTEE REPORT ENTITLED ``RESEARCH FUNDING-STRENGTHENING THE SOURCES OF INNOVATION'' JUNE 1999

The Bloc Québécois members of the Industry Committee would like to start by saying that they concur with much of the Committee's report. They would, however, like to highlight facts and testimony that were not expressly stated or to which only incomplete reference was made. They would also like more attention to be paid to researchers' needs since, as the Chinese proverb says, "Birds sing; cages don't."

In order to get their facts firsthand, the Bloc Québécois members of the Committee drew on the papers presented by research professors at the symposium organized by the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d'université (FQPPU) entitled La recherche universitaire et les partenariats, held in Montreal on December 10 and 11, 1998.

(A) Federal funding

1. From 1984-85 to 1996-97, the federal government's share of total government funding for the main fields of university research in Quebec fell from 55% to 37%, while the Quebec government's share remained steady at 23%. Funds from the private sector made up much of the difference, as its share increased from 10% to 26% , primarily in the form of the partnerships that are the focus of the Committee's report.

2. Cuts of 40% in transfer payments for education, from the levels of 1994-95, have significantly hindered the government of Quebec and the other provincial governments. The Quebec government has been obliged to cut budgets for universities and thus for university research. These cuts, by making funding for basic university research so precarious, heightened the impact of grants from the private sector and from partnerships. Nevertheless, the Quebec government did not want to increase tuition fees for its students, whose indebtedness is half that of Canadian students' on average.

3. The Bloc Québécois cannot accept the statement in paragraph 78 that "science and technology and research and development have not been cut disproportionately", given the ever-widening gap between Canadian funding and sustained funding in the United States since the 1980s, as shown in Table 3. In a study entitled Le niveau de financement de la recherche universitaire au Canada et aux États-Unis ["The level of funding for university research in Canada and the United States"], Jean-Pierre Robitaille and Yves Gingras state clearly:

[translation] Since in Canada the federal government is the main provider of funds, it is also the contributor that is most responsible for the increasing disparity with the United States. The provinces, since 1984 at least, and Canada's private sector, since 1991, have done much more, in proportionate terms, than their counterparts in the United States.1

4. Robert Giroux, President of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), told the Committee:

[translation] It is extremely important for the AUCC this year and, we think, equally important for our partners, that there be a significant effort by the federal government to increase transfer payments, and by the provincial governments to direct that increase to post-secondary institutions, so that they can restore and enhance their basic budgets.

Recommendation:

That the federal government increase transfers to the provinces so that they can restore funding for education, particularly universities and research.

(B) On the "value" of the humanities

The Committee's report does not attach enough importance to the humanities. It is our view that, particularly in the present era, there are innumerable issues that research in the humanities can freely address, and countless questions to which it can seek solutions.

(C) Lower taxes as a means of keeping researchers in Canada

Although paragraph 19 states "The CFI [Canada Foundation for Innovation] noted that `stemming the brain drain' would involve improving researchers' compensation, and a lower tax structure, and equipping them with the tools to fulfil their potential," the Bloc Québécois would like to emphasize that other witnesses expressed very different views on these priorities. According to Robert Giroux, President of the AUCC:

[translation] Personally, first of all, I find it hard to believe that the solution lies in cutting taxes. The AUCC carried out a study in 1997 to ascertain why so many university professors and researchers had left Canada to study, most of them going to the United States. Nearly half (of the 1,000 in the sample) had left universities for earlier pensions. But, we were told, one of the main reasons for the other 50% was the research climate: the university research environment. What does that mean? It means: firstly, that grants are available for them to do research; secondly, that these grants-as they should-allow researchers to encourage students to work with them; and thirdly, that these grants allow researchers to work as a team, so that research becomes increasingly multidisciplinary. Individual taxation levels were also included among important factors. Essentially, these researchers were invited to come and work in a laboratory and offered three or four times more grants, the best equipment in the world and, as well, such-and-such a tax level-on salaries higher than in Canada.

(D) The balance between market-oriented partnerships and universities' traditional missions

5. In their study on the directions and priorities of granting councils in 16 countries, conducted for the Fonds pour la formation de chercheurs et l'aide à la recherche (Fonds FCAR), Benoit Godin, Michel Trépanier and Liette Fiset stated that Canada places an emphasis, not found in any other country except perhaps the United Kingdom, on the need to align government research with the marketplace.

6. In this regard as well, Robert Giroux, President of the AUCC, is eloquent:

[translation] The primary mission of a university may be seen as threefold: the mission of training and of producing thinkers who will be able to make a contribution to society; the research mission, which is very important; and, as well, the mission to the community - the university has a very important role to play in the community, in helping it face up to its own challenges and solve its own problems.

7. Georges Leroux, in his summary address at the symposium on university research and partnerships, stated,

[translation] By promoting partnerships, governments believe they can easily jettison their responsibility toward research, but they seem to be unaware of the fact that universities are the custodians of legitimacy and rigorous precision in scientific endeavours.

Conclusion

There must be follow-up to the Committee's report. The Committee has only begun to grasp the turmoil that is affecting not only research, but also universities and the ongoing quest for knowledge.

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1 Bulletin de l'enseignement supérieur, volume 4, number 2, April 1999, page 32.