Statement made on 28 May 2009 by Senator Lorna Milne (retired)
Hon. Lorna Milne:
Honourable senators, a few weeks ago I was able to spend the morning exploring the Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre of Excellence at the University of Guelph. It is a wonderful new educational research and outreach facility. I was amazed at what can be produced from waste products and from extremely inexpensive plant materials using nanotechnology.
For those senators who do not know as I do, "nano" means extremely small — one billionth of a metre. A human hair is 50,000 nanometres in diameter. This piece of paper is about 100,000 nanometres thick. Nanoscience deals with particles and strands that range only from 0.1 to 100 nanometres in width. At this miniscule range, ordinary substances develop novel and unexpected properties and can be used in many unconventional ways such as to form new plastics and other space-age materials without the need for petrochemicals. These are known as nano-engineered substances.
I was shown bio-plastics formed entirely from plant materials that are suitable for making lightweight car parts that are stronger than steel. I saw bio-materials such as soy oil and corn or hemp stalks that can be used instead of plastic. I saw lighter and stronger building materials from waste products such as lignin or distillers grains and even from cow manure. I saw materials formed from a combination of such things as waste plastic bags and recycled paper that are every bit as good if not better than the original oil-based plastic — plus, they are biodegradable. Everything from building panels, carpets, furniture and packaging materials to lubricants and paints can be made from natural products. It was an eye-opening tour.
Dr. Amar Mohanty, who is heading up this project and his wife, Dr. Manju Misra, through their reputations and expertise, have attracted some of the finest post-doctoral researchers in the area of nanotechnology and bio-research from around the world to take part in this exciting new venture. Use of this new nanotechnology has a potential economic impact of up to $1 trillion to the world's economy over the next 20 years. Industries using it will need to hire two million nanotech workers. This is the green way of the future.
The facility at the University of Guelph was made possible only through a $3 million grant from the Province of Ontario that funded the Premier's Research Chair and enabled the university to attract the best research people in the world to this brand new laboratory that is allowing Canada to lead the world in this technology. The Canada Foundation for Innovation also contributed to the development of the centre that opened in October of last year.
Investing in research such as this is essential to learning how to lower our dependence on non-renewable resources and to building a better future for us all. Governments absolutely must fund such research.