Statement made on 22 April 2009 by Senator Art Eggleton
Hon. Art Eggleton:
Honourable senators, my question is directed to the Leader of the Government in the Senate. A few moments ago the honourable senator referred to the question on science funding that Senator Cowan, our leader, asked yesterday. I want to follow up on that question, but the quotes I will give are entirely from the science community, from the people who signed this open letter of March 16. They asked the federal government to reconsider funding cuts to Canada's three leading science funding agencies, calling them, "A huge step backward for Canadian science."
They went on to state, "Whereas the U.S. government is proposing to boost the funding of the National Science Foundation (NSF) by 40 per cent . . . we see Canada . . . cutting NSERC," which is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, ". . . by 5 per cent. Whereas the U.S. administration is proposing to boost the funding of the National Institute of Health (NIH) by 30 per cent . . ." we are ". . . cutting CIHR's. . ." which is the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, — " . . . by 5 per cent, while essentially ignoring the needs of Genome Canada. When U.S. researchers are being actively approached for ideas to use the stimulus money to think big and to hire and retain their researchers, their Canadian counterparts are now scrambling to identify budget cuts for their Labs, while worrying about the future of their graduating students."
This is what all these scientists are saying. Will the government act on the advice of these distinguished scientists?
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