Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, it is a great pleasure to be here.
I'm the new president and CEO of the AUCC. Over the last four months I've had the occasion to visit eight provinces and about 30 campuses around the country. Let me say how grateful we are for the knowledge infrastructure program. It is delivering results in more than 80 communities across the country.
A little less than a year ago my predecessor came to this committee and told you that we needed help, that we needed to be ready for what's coming in the next century, and that we can deliver shovel-ready projects. Those projects are under way now. They are creating jobs now and creating jobs for the future. I invite you to visit our website for ongoing reports on our progress and to look for a progress report in coming weeks.
I also want to make one other economic point, which is that between last August and this August there were 40,000 net new jobs in Canada for those with a university education, while there were 370,000 jobs lost to those who did not have that education. I think we are starting to see in real terms what a knowledge economy is about. Now the question is what we do to leverage our success and accelerate our growth.
Over the years you have heard AUCC talk about the importance of research. But it's not just us. People around the table have spoken about the need for improved research funding. And it's not just outside groups. Advantage Canada, the science and technology strategy, the Council of Canadian Academies, the Competition Policy Review Panel, the Science, Technology and Innovation Council, and the OECD in recent months have all said that now is the time to up our game.
I've been thinking about how to articulate the benefits of research not only to members of Parliament but to everyday citizens, everyday voters, everyday taxpayers. You can see in the press every week new breakthroughs that are improving Canadians' lives, whether it's this morning's headline on cancer research or the Nobel prize that was won earlier this week. These are accomplishments of which all Canadians can be proud.
Let me give you a few examples as well of everyday research that's going on in universities across the country.
You are politicians; you eat a lot of breakfasts and a lot of eggs. The omega-3 egg is the product of research at the University of Guelph, funded federally and provincially, which is creating jobs in that community and improving the health of Canadians.
You are politicians; you spend a lot of time travelling this country. Don't you love it when they say they have to go into the de-icing bay one more time? The world-leading research institute on ice and de-icing is based at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Every time you speed through that de-icing facility, you can thank the research that's going on in universities across the country.
At the end of the day, whether you are sleeping in your own bed or a bed in Ottawa or a bed somewhere on the road, you may have trouble sleeping. Sleep apnea is a major concern for thousands of Canadians. Research on that subject was done at the University of Calgary, and it has turned into a business generating $160 million in sales.
You have asked us for examples of real-life research. These are just three that I think you can find reflected in your everyday life.
As I said, we can take great pride in the world-class accomplishments of our researchers. But it's far too easy to be complacent. You may have seen just this week that Thomson Reuters has projected that India will surpass the G-7 in its research output in the next seven years.
So yes, we can take pride in what has been happening, but we need to do more. That's why our request for increased research funding this year is front-end loaded. It's front-end loaded to accelerate the results of the knowledge infrastructure program and position Canada for the 21st century.
Our two other areas are internationalization and improvement of access for aboriginal education.
On the international front, are you aware that in the last ten years international education has become the third-largest source of export earnings for Australia, second only to iron and coal? That's what the knowledge economy is. They have done that through a sustained federal government investment in international student recruitment. Are you aware that there are 2,600 students from India studying in Canada and 26,000 studying in Australia? Think for a moment what that means, as the Prime Minister heads to India.
Think what it means about the future of our economic relationship, our trading relationships, our social relationships, and our position in the world. Australia has pointed a path for how we can move forward on internationalization. Let me ground this again, for members interested in Atlantic Canada as it faces its population struggles. International student recruitment is a magnet for acquiring top talent in Canada.
I want to close by looking at the situation of aboriginal Canadians. I don't need to tell this committee that the aboriginal population is growing at three times the average national rate. University attainment is one-third of the national average.
There are 400,000 aboriginal Canadians who will be entering workforce age within the next 10 years. What are we going to do about it? There are solutions that are available. There's a huge fix that needs to be addressed in terms of the K-to-12 aspect of the education system, but there are measures that can be taken now to improve access to higher education for aboriginal Canadians in skills like engineering, pharmacy, chemistry—the real skills that aboriginal Canadians need to grow our country.
Mr. Chair, I want to conclude by saying that last year was a significant investment in the knowledge infrastructure program. It poises Canada to take us into the 21st century, to ensure that the knowledge economy fuels our growth. All our fiscal projections depend on the knowledge economy. For that I ask for your support for these three areas as they address the economic, demographic, and social challenges this country faces.
Merci.