Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am William Curran, the Library Director of Montreal's Concordia University. This morning, I am speaking on behalf of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries.
I want to thank the committee for this opportunity to address issues of importance not only to the research libraries but to the government's own agenda of ensuring competitiveness and fairness.
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries, known as CARL, compliments the Government of Canada on its continued commitment to enhancing research and research infrastructure. The government recognizes that Canada's edge in this global economy is tied to its investment in education, to its support for the way knowledge is transmitted, and to how it helps enable Canada to adapt to changing technologies.
To maximize these investments, CARL proposes modifications to the tax system to enhance access to research materials and to promote the development of a skilled and knowledgeable workforce through the promotion of e-learning.
As Canada moves towards a knowledge-based e-economy, it will be increasingly important to create first-class, pan-Canadian networks of online learning resources. It's important to support the increasing demand for online education, instruction, and training and to increase Canada's competitiveness internationally.
The use of e-learning, or technology-assisted learning, by Canadian institutions has increased by as much as 30% over the past five years, and library participation, of course, has kept pace. Academic librarians, faculty, and staff are providing direct access to many thousands of online journals and databases and are increasingly integrating curriculum development, electronic library resources, and learning technologies in online courses.
In its Advantage Canada document, the Government of Canada demonstrated its understanding that talented, creative people are critical to a successful national economy over the long term. In this context, lifelong learning is vital to skills development and personal upgrading. E-learning is a dynamic way of providing these skills. It provides the key to access and delivery of high-quality educational materials anytime, anywhere.
CARL proposes that the government implement tax credits as an incentive for individuals to pursue their education by electronic means. To make e-learning accessible to all Canadians, the government must also continue its commitment to initiatives such as CANARIE, a not-for-profit corporation that manages CA*net, a sophisticated research broadband network that links Canadian universities, research hospitals, and other science facilities in other countries. The budget of 2007 provided money to allow CANARIE to maintain the CA*net for the next five years, and CARL strongly supports this investment in this first-class Canadian network of online learning resources to serve the needs of the country's learning communities.
CARL supports the position put forward by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada that the government must continue its investments in university research in a balanced manner that addresses equally basic research, human capital, leading edge infrastructure, and support for the indirect costs of research. Canadian research libraries benefit from the indirect costs program. Funds are used to access information resources that are vital to any researchers in any given field.
Previously, the indirect costs program covered approximately 25% of the overall research grants made to universities. The increased investments in budget 2006 and 2007 have raised the average reimbursement rate. However, for Canada to be internationally competitive, a 40% reimbursement is the target to aim for. CARL asks the government to continue to increase its investment in the indirect costs program.
On tax fairness, the government has the opportunity to make a small but significant tax change to make Canada's research community more competitive. Currently a university library receives a full rebate on the GST it pays on printed books and subscriptions to magazines and periodicals containing less than 5% advertising. However, scholarly research material is now overwhelmingly delivered in the electronic format. Because of the way the scholarly research material is defined in subsection 259(1) of the Excise Tax Act, such material in electronic format does not qualify for the full rebate. There is no evident justification for this discrepancy. The funds that could otherwise be freed up could be used for the acquisition of additional information resources, thus supporting the government's agenda to develop a skilled and knowledgeable workforce. The government can ensure tax fairness by providing the GST rebate to scholarly material in electronic format, as it presently applies to printed material.
On delivering value to Canadians, this government has shown in its past two budgets that it is committed to delivering new opportunities to ensure a brighter future for Canadians. In its Advantage Canada document, the government stated that by creating these choices it was also providing the educational opportunities Canadians needed to thrive in a knowledge economy.