Finance committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for inviting us again to address your committee. My name is Nobina Robinson, and I'm joined by my colleague, Ken Doyle, of Polytechnics Canada. Contributing to Canada's economic success is what polytechnic institutions do. It is an integ

Finance committee  Thank you for your question. Polytechnics Canada doesn't get a cent from any of these councils. We represent colleges that can compete and then on a competitive basis obtain funding from a variety of sources. There is a difference between the three federal research granting co

Finance committee  In different kinds of competitive projects, partnered with industry often, as CFI has explained, and leveraged with other sources of funding, institutional or private sector, for different kinds of purposes. If you have a project that's trying to do an IT technology, you go to NS

Finance committee  Well, we are happier than we would have been a decade ago, when college research was not funded at all by any federal department or granting council. We are new players, new entrants, and we are very glad for the little recognition there is. But the balance is something that over

Finance committee  The chair will tell me how many seconds I have left to answer. I have two minutes?

Finance committee  Okay. You've asked many very fundamental questions.

Finance committee  I think the federal government is beginning to consider that, yes, the ROI—the return on investment—needs to be looked at, which is why it has recently created an expert panel on business innovation. I can only speak about the inputs and the outputs of my members.

Finance committee  That's what we have been tracking year on year now for two or three years, where I believe we are seeing, first of all, the private sector investment in our colleges growing. Our data show that it had grown by about 120% last year, from year to year. We've gone from $3 million to

Finance committee  Thank you. Thank you for inviting us to address your committee. My name is Nobina Robinson, and I am pleased to speak to you as CEO of Polytechnics Canada. By all accounts, the immediate economic outlook is generally pessimistic, and the word “recession” is no longer being whi

Finance committee  Thank you very much for your question. Indeed there are vast opportunities in the areas where Canada has had either historical or recent industrial strength. Both in my day job and in the work I've just finished, I think sometimes we focus too much on chasing other countries and

Finance committee  You're referring to the knowledge infrastructure program?

Finance committee  Every one of my members benefited to some great degree. You're right; it's about bricks and mortar. I think it's a misnomer to think it paid for research facilities. It didn't; it paid for bricks and mortar and deferred maintenance. It's a very important program. All our colleg

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Just to jump off from where Jim was, I think we are all aware that Canada ranks first overall in the OECD on the post-secondary attainment of our population. But credit is seldom given to the fact that this ranking is bolstered by the college sector. Alone, pure univ

Human Resources committee  I would make some additional points outside of what Jim said but including what Jim said. You, sir, were talking about the proverbial high school dropout. There's also the traditional term, “youth at risk”. There's a new acronym I would like to introduce to the committee, and i

Human Resources committee  What I wanted to come back to.... You picked Alberta. Post-secondary is a provincial jurisdiction, as you very well know. Alberta calls it a “web” of credentials, not a ladder. We have hierarchical thinking in most of this country: BA, MA, PhD. We call it a web, with any point o