Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, please allow me to thank you, as well as all of the members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, for your kind invitation.
Today I'll be speaking directly to the topic of federal support for research and innovation. In fact, I'd like to start by offering two recommendations.
Number one is that the Government of Canada enhance its support for world-class research and technology development through the federal granting councils. The second, because research infrastructure is a cornerstone of world-class research, is that the Government of Canada provide the Canada Foundation for Innovation with stable, annual, and predictable funding that will ensure that Canada maintains and enhances its hard-won competitive advantage in higher education research and technology development.
Since 1997, the government of Canada has invested some $6 billion in state-of-the-art research facilities through the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Moreover, through its unique funding model, these investments have leveraged close to $8 billion from its funding partners—provinces, the teaching and research institutions and the private sector. This means that some $14 billion were invested in cutting-edge research facilities put at the disposal of our most brilliant researchers.
The Government of Canada's investments in the CFI and in the federal granting agencies are generating the scientific excellence crucial for producing highly qualified people trained at the leading edge of science and technology development who are capable of driving the innovation capacity of Canadian organizations in all sectors. For example, I could talk of Saskatoon's state-of-the-art Canadian Light Source, or CLS, synchrotron. There are also Canada's world-leading research activities in Arctic and marine research, or in the exceptional photonics research centre in Quebec City, and in many other Canadian colleges and universities.
Today the results of this funding speak for themselves. While Canadians make up only 0.5% of the world's population, we are producing almost 5% of the world's most highly cited papers. In fact, in a recent assessment by the Council of Canadian Academies, Canadian research is now ranked sixth in the world for the overall impact of its scholarly activities.
The state-of-the-art research facilities funded by the CFI not only are hotbeds of discovery research but also are open for business. In fact almost 300 research facilities and laboratories in all sectors of research, from social sciences to health research, are set to be part of a new online directory called the CFI Research Facilities Navigator, which will help businesses locate and connect with experts and facilities at universities and colleges across the country.
In these research facilities, companies are finding new ideas to help them develop better technologies and processes to enhance business performance. They also have access to state-of-the-art equipment they would not otherwise be able to afford, and they work with exceptional students and researchers who can apply their skills to real-world settings.
The central challenge for Canada today is how to maintain our competitive advantage in science and technology and continue to perform at world-class levels. The fact is that 21st century researchers simply cannot be globally competitive without appropriate research funding and without access to leading-edge research equipment and facilities. And while we have made impressive gains, as a nation, we cannot afford to be complacent.
The central challenge for Canada today is maintaining our competitive advantage in science and technology and continuing to perform at world-class levels. The fact is that 21st-century researchers simply cannot be globally competitive without appropriate research funding and without access to leading-edge research equipment and facilities. While we've made impressive gains as a nation, we cannot afford to be complacent. Therefore, we recommend that the Government of Canada enhance its investments in the federal granting councils, and at the same time that it adopt in Budget 2014 a sustainable, annual, and predictable funding model for the CFI with investments that are in line with historical investments made by the government over the past 15 years.
Thank you.