Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and distinguished members of the Standing Committee on Finance. Thank you for the opportunity.
From the perspective of Western University in London, I want to start by stating that we appreciated yesterday's presentation to this committee by the Honourable Ed Holder, London's mayor, and especially his focus on improving transportation to southwest Ontario. I thank my colleagues at Universities Canada and the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, whose briefs have informed my remarks.
We all know that Canada's universities continue to be key drivers of national prosperity. As a proud immigrant to Canada myself, I would say we have one of the most envied university systems in the world.
This afternoon I want to highlight three opportunities for budget 2020 to support key priorities in partnership with Canada's universities. First of all, we must acknowledge the significant investments in our sector, and these continue to be significant.
A first priority for budget 2020 could be to further the return on the R and D investment by Canadians to make Canada as competitive as possible on the world stage. Universities Canada has proposed a new fund to move ideas and intellectual property from our campuses toward the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, as some other nations already do. The fund might particularly support partnerships with local and regional industries in which universities are especially active.
A second priority for universities would be helping Canada and the world with climate change. Universities have a large role to play in mitigating climate change. We do new research, and we make available our ideas and our technologies. On our campuses, it's believed that at least half of the shovel-ready projects we have would also focus on green infrastructure and energy efficiency. Further investment in this broad area of green tech and clean tech would enable researchers to develop better ways to reduce our own carbon footprint, and it would position Canada further as a seller of climate change solutions in the global marketplace. The U15 has put forth two compelling proposals: a green campus infrastructure fund and a clean future research and innovation fund.
Helping Canada strengthen its role as a partner for international research collaborations would be a third priority. Solutions to the world's most urgent and complex problems are unlikely to be found in isolation. In a post-Brexit world, there will be new opportunities to engage in global research initiatives as the boundaries among global research institutions and national and international funding agencies are redrawn. These opportunities would provide new initiatives for our students as well as our faculty. They would provide jobs as well.
Thank you again for the opportunity to point to areas of investment that would make a difference: getting new knowledge out the door, grappling with climate change and playing on an equal basis with universities around the world.
It's a pleasure to be here.