Thank you.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to speak about the Canada Foundation for Innovation and how it contributes to making Canadians more productive and Canadian businesses more competitive.
The two questions this committee has posed are crucial to the future of our country, and the two recommendations that we propose for budget 2018 are crucial to ensuring that our future is bright.
First, we recommend increasing support to the federal research funding agencies to improve the research ecosystem. Second, we recommend regularized support for research infrastructure through the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Our recommendations echo those set out by the Government of Canada's Advisory Panel for the Review of Federal Support for Fundamental Science, which was convened to determine how to strengthen the foundations of this country's research and technology. As you know, the report by this panel was released in the spring shortly after the publication of “The Path to Prosperity” report by the Government of Canada's Advisory Council on Economic Growth. These two documents share one common recommendation: that Canadians, particularly young Canadians, need more opportunities to gain modern skills and knowledge to be productive in their workplaces and in their communities.
You may ask, how does support for research funding contribute to this? Let's look back 20 years when the Government of Canada endeavoured to curb the country's brain drain by starting to invest in cutting-edge research tools at universities and colleges right across the country through the Canada Foundation for Innovation. By providing state-of-the-art labs and facilities, Canada turned the situation around. Cumulative investments in infrastructure over the years have allowed Canadian researchers to become global leaders in areas such as regenerative medicine, agrifood, and energy, and now we're looking at quantum computing, artificial intelligence and clean technology.
To advance these areas, however, and to compete globally, Canada needs to sustain a robust ecosystem of research. We can attract and retain the best and brightest minds in the world to think big and to innovate, and it is here that our young people enter some of the best training grounds in the world. They are mentored by the top minds, who transfer insight and critical thinking skills. They get the hands-on advanced technical skills that employers are looking for, and they experience what productive collaborations look like among academic, public and private sectors, both nationally and internationally. These are the capabilities that we need to nurture to help a new generation compete in, and adapt quickly to, an evolving market of jobs. We need to drive increased productivity, business competitiveness and economic growth.
We are not the only nation in the world to realize this, however. Other countries are investing heavily in research to drive their economy. In a world where research talent is more mobile and in higher demand than ever, Canada is engaged in a global race. We are in a position to win. This is Canada's time to lead intellectually in science and technology.
Ultimately, federal measures aimed at making Canadians and Canadian business more productive and competitive come down to investing in the next generation, investing in their minds and in their opportunities, so that they can make positive and meaningful contributions to society.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think we all know that the future of Canada lies in its youth. Canada's ability to attract and retain the brightest minds in the world and provide them with access to cutting-edge research tools, the ones they need to learn, explore, discover, and innovate will pave the way to enhancing our country's future growth and prosperity.
Thank you.