Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for inviting me here today. I am thrilled to have the chance to contribute to the important work you're doing on this committee. Merci beaucoup.
The Government of Canada has set a goal to boost Canada's productivity, competitiveness, and prosperity, and to do so in a way that helps more diverse groups of people enjoy the benefits of a growing economy. I believe we can all get behind these goals. The message I want to convey today is simply this: to achieve these things, we are going to need a strong research system.
My organization represents 90,000 scholars across Canada.
The Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences is the largest community of researchers in the country. These researchers teach the largest community of post-secondary students in Canada. About half of all the students in Canada are registered in humanities and social science programs.
Our researchers and students are tremendous resources for Canada. Our economy is increasingly a service and knowledge economy. Service industries now account for 70% of our GDP, and Canadian employers tells us that they are looking for the kinds of skills taught in the humanities and social sciences: critical thinking, creativity, and writing and communication skills. Research in the humanities and social sciences will also be vital in helping us address some of the biggest challenges facing Canada today: climate change, indigenous reconciliation, youth employment, and the integration of refugees and immigrants.
Governments past and present have taken critical steps to support research, and I want to thank you for that, but according to the fundamental science review completed earlier this year, all is not well. Canada is falling behind.
In particular, investments in the humanities and social sciences, which cover research about Canada's people—our greatest asset—are out of line with our needs, receiving just 15% of federal research funding. As a result, only about a quarter of Canada's talent pool in these areas is able to find funding for their research in a given year. This is a lost opportunity for Canada as other countries surge ahead with investments in basic science and research.
Fortunately, the science review has given us clear recommendations to improve the situation. We have more detailed recommendations in our brief, but let me focus for now on just two.
First, as per the expert panel's advice, we recommend increasing the base funding of Canada’s research-granting agencies by $485 million over four years.
Second, as investments are made to the granting councils, we recommend that humanities and social science research receive a share of new injections equal to that for physical and health sciences in order to better balance Canada’s overall research portfolio, a principle also underscored by the expert panel.
Finally, let's not overlook the fact that one of Canada's most important economic drivers is the cohesiveness of our diverse society. In Canada, people from many different backgrounds are able to work together to create amazing things, and not every country has that. This is perhaps our greatest competitive advantage. How did we build it? What sustains it? What risks are we facing today that threaten it? Canadian scholars in the humanities and social sciences are exploring exactly these questions, and I believe that if we truly want to continue to build a sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive economy, their contributions will be vital.
Thank you. Merci beaucoup.