Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's nothing like having five minutes to concentrate the mind.
I begin by observing what I'm sure everyone in this room agrees with, and that is the importance of post-secondary education and training, not only for the future of our economy, but also for the future of our society. We're not only training people who are going to be making economic contributions, but we're also educating people who are going to be family members, community members, and citizens.
Something everyone would agree with, I assume, is the vital role the federal government plays in post-secondary education and training, both in the transfers to the provinces for post-secondary education and training and in funding research.
We congratulate the government for sticking to its commitment of having a 3% escalator in its transfer for post-secondary education on a continuing basis. But we would note that with the rising costs—that is, with inflation and with the increasing enrolment—that 3% escalator is not keeping up with the costs that provinces, universities, and colleges are facing.
With respect to the spending on research—and this is where I'd like to focus my remarks—again, the government deserves credit, because it has been spending more on research than its predecessor, but we would suggest that it's been investing that money badly. I don't know who the government's advisers are and how it should be spending research money, but I'd strongly urge you to get new advisers. It's time to get a new crew to give you advice.
Let me give you a few examples. The government allocated close to $200 million for 19 Canada excellence research chairs. Each gets $10 million over a period of time, as well as more money provided by their own institutions, and there are another 10 in the works. This is a huge amount of money concentrated in a very small number of people. We'd suggest that this is not the best way to advance science. It's the same mentality as some sports teams who think that by spending the bulk of their capital on a few high-priced stars, they will build a sports franchise. It doesn't work.
For example, instead of $10 million per, some very vital research centres have had to close, for example, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, which is closing because it can't get $1.5 million a year. That money supported the work of 60 scientists doing a vast range of high Arctic research. Given how expensive it is to do research in the high Arctic—it does cost money—what's being lost is not only the work of those 60 scientists, but also the $8 million or so in equipment that the government has financed for that centre.
There is the Experimental Lakes Area, the best in the world in freshwater study. It's been compared to closing the world's most powerful astronomy telescope, or closing Los Alamos. The cost is $2 million a year.
There is also the Kluane Lake Research Station, a legendary research centre more than 50 years old, uniquely positioned to study the largest non-polar icefield in the world and the effects thereon in global warming. That costs a million dollars a year, and yet we have $10 million per person for each of the Canada excellence research chairs.
The Minister of Industry.... I can make available to committee—and hopefully you've seen it—a letter signed by more than 48 of the top scientists in the country deploring the kinds of cuts that NSERC had to make that resulted in these closures. The NSERC website is very clear that it's having to make these closures because of the government's cut to its funding.
A second area is in terms of the funding of the three granting councils: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, NSERC, and CIHR. Over the last six years, since this government has come to power, in terms of real dollars—that is, after inflation—the funding for all three granting councils has fallen: SSHRC by 12.9%, NSERC by 3.1%, and CIHR by 6%, and indirect costs have fallen by 2.5%.
In terms of who gets funded with granting council money, if you look at NSERC, where we look at the balance between targeted research—that is, research directed by third parties—and basic research, the amount in real dollars that is being spent on basic research has fallen by about $80 million since 2006-07, while that being spent on targeted research has increased by an equivalent amount.
We also see the destruction of our knowledge base, the dismembering of Library and Archives Canada, the serious cuts to Statistics Canada that are crippling a lot of social science research, and the cuts to Parks Canada, which looks after 167 historic sites as well as countless archaeological artifacts.
In short, you're spending a lot of money. You could spend it better. We encourage you to put in an initial $500 million from the three funding agencies, have the funding agencies be more at arm's length, and introduce the Canada Post-Secondary Education Act, as we recommended in our submission to you. And we join with AUCC in encouraging much more substantial funding for aboriginal education.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.