Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for making it possible for me to speak to you today.
I'm Geneviève Moineau. I am a practising pediatrician here at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. I'm also a full professor at the University of Ottawa. I'm here as president and CEO of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, which is the voice of academic medicine in our country and represents our 17 faculties of medicine.
We train tomorrow's doctors and health researchers, and we represent thousands of health researchers, Ph.D. holders, and trainees across the country.
Canada must reinvest in health research and innovation, and better support the future leaders in these fields. This will result in better health and economic benefits for Canadians, and help Canada regain a leading role in health research and innovation on the world stage. Ninety-six percent of Canadians surveyed in an Abacus poll that came out this last weekend consider it important for the federal government to support discovering medicines and breakthrough health innovations. Nine out of 10 Canadians consider it important that the federal government support young researchers to obtain funding.
The financial benefits of health research are tremendous. A study we performed in 2014 on the economic impact of academic health science networks—our faculties of medicine, teaching hospitals, research hospitals—found that that network accounts for $66 billion of total economic impact, which is 3.5% of the GDP and helps us develop over 300,000 jobs across the country.
Canada has been at the forefront of discoveries in innovation and health. As a pediatric trainee in the late 1980s, I had patients dying of cystic fibrosis under my care. I had children dying of HIV. We don't see that anymore in pediatrics, mainly due to discoveries and treatments that have been developed by Canadian researchers.
Our researchers now are trying to find a way to treat heart disease and to find a cure for Alzheimer's through stem cell research.
In recent years, Canada has fallen behind. In Europe, many countries have reinvested heavily in health research and development. Even in the United States in 2017, the U.S. Congress supported a $2-billion increase in NIH funding, bringing the U.S. to a $110 per capita investment in research while Canada only provides one-third of that amount per capita.
That is why it is important to implement the recommendations in the Naylor report, namely to invest $485 million over four years for investigator-led research, to provide funding of $300 million per year for the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and to enhance support for trainees and young researchers.
A key group of these trainees who require our support are MD-Ph.D. trainees who have been shown to be the most successful in maintaining robust careers in health research and have led to innovations for better care for Canadians. These are the future leaders of health research and innovation in Canada.
Under the previous government, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, CIHR, cut the programs supporting these trainees by $2.6 million, eliminating the program completely, in fact. These funds were being used to help support only the Ph.D. part of their training. As we know, MD training is already well supported by the provincial governments. Funding those three years of Ph.D. study means that these very bright individuals don't have to try to seek funding elsewhere and can focus their energies on the training that they need. It supports their room and board, and any other schooling expenses. Losing the federal funding for this program will reduce the number of such students, while some programs may need to shut down completely.
In conclusion, AFMC calls on the federal government to support the future of fundamental science and health research, discovery, and innovation by restoring the $2.6 million annually to fund the MD-Ph.D. program. Investing in the training and development of these young clinician researchers will stimulate our research and innovation. Not only will it lead to better health and more prosperity for all Canadians, but it will enhance Canada's reputation on the world stage.
Thank you very much.