Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for letting me address your committee today.
I am Ilene Busch-Vishniac, the president of the University of Saskatchewan.
As one of the medical-doctoral, research-intensive universities in Canada, the U of S is extremely interested in the strategic and financial impacts of the next federal budget. We were pleased with the strategic directions taken in 2012 and hope that the Government of Canada continues to recognize the importance of post-secondary education and research in advancing our country's innovation agenda.
Our written submission contains a number of observations and recommendations, but today I wish to focus on three key recommendations, those being continued support for research and development, funding of national science facilities in the long term, and investment in addressing the educational gap for Canada's aboriginal peoples.
Canada's investments in R and D as a percentage of GDP are lower than the OECD average, and much lower than countries such as Israel, Sweden, and the U.S. If Canada wishes to be internationally competitive, we should explore increasing R and D investments to levels well above the OECD average, and it is this that we recommend.
University research attracts talent and has tremendous social and economic impacts. For example, U of S researchers at the Canadian Light Source are developing new drugs, new materials for energy storage, and new ways to diagnose and treat serious medical conditions such as cancer and heart disease, but Canada must also recognize that R and D investments made today do not bear fruit immediately. Instead, they lay the foundation for the new discoveries we make tomorrow.
Canada's efforts to increase business investment in R and D and develop new industry partnerships are important, but these efforts must be coupled with investments in fundamental research. The U of S is very privileged to be the home to both the Canadian Light Source, Canada's only synchrotron facility, and VIDO-InterVac, an international vaccine centre. These facilities enhance our capacity to innovate, create employment and wealth, and solve global issues that affect the most basic of human needs: water, energy, food, and health.
But buildings do not innovate; people innovate. In order to grow our human infrastructure in Canada, we need to be able to attract and retain the best and the brightest scientists and thinkers from around the world. This brain gain will occur only if we can provide the necessary research environment and equipment to enable these researchers to do their work, which frequently spans decades. This is why it is so important to ensure that national research facilities like CLS and VIDO-InterVac have stable, long-term operational funding in place, and that is the nature of our recommendation.
On aboriginal challenges and opportunities, the measures outlined in Canada's economic action plan 2012 to improve first nations education will help to reduce the existing gap between Canadian aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, particularly in the K-12 system, but we need to find effective mechanisms that reach all aboriginal people. At the U of S, we have the highest proportion of self-declared aboriginal students of any medical-doctoral institution in Canada, but we recognize that we need to do more to increase the number of aboriginal graduates, teachers, researchers, and organizational leaders.
New approaches are being explored to enhance aboriginal education and partnering. These efforts would go much faster with federal investment in such strategies. Investing in aboriginal education and employment is not only a moral imperative, it is a sound investment. Studies have shown that closing the education and labour market gap between aboriginals and non-aboriginals by 2026 would lead to cumulative benefits of $400.5 billion in additional output and $115 billion in avoided government expenditures over the period from 2001 to 2026.
In summary, Canada needs a national innovation strategy that supports human, physical, and technological capital through investments in advanced education, research, knowledge transfer, and business development.
It also needs to optimize the sustainability of our national research facilities and strengthen the capacity for all Canadians to contribute to the economy.
This is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do, and now is the time to do it.
Thank you.