Thank you, Ms. Diab. I'm also thrilled to be here.
While Nova Scotia does have a disproportionately aging population compared to many other provinces, I wouldn't say that's true of the professoriate in our post-secondary sector. As you know, we have 10 universities and a community college. We are able to attract and retain a lot of talent. In fact in Nova Scotia, Halifax in particular is one of the top 10 cities in North America for the proportion of the population who are post-secondary educated.
I do actually think that we produce a lot of talent. While Dalhousie attracts a lot of students from outside of the province, many of the other universities attract more people from within the province. We are tending to grow a lot of our own talent.
That said, people do travel across Canada and around the world. How we attract and retain top talent is a great question. Part of it is the ecosystem. There's something very attractive about the research ecosystem in Canada, in that unlike in the U.S., professors don't pay themselves out of their research grants. It actually costs less to do the same amount of research here because you're not paying all of the professors who are part of the research grant. It costs less to do research here than it does in the U.S. We're often able to attract big grants from the U.S. to do research here. That's one very attractive thing about Canada. A lot of U.S. professors find it very attractive. They actually have to find part of their salary through their grants. In Canada, we generally do not. Professors are generally salaried. It's an attractive environment from that perspective.
You are correct, moving to a new ecosystem for research can be very difficult and a steep learning curve, if you're not familiar with it.
I think Canadian researchers want to stay in Canada. We know that Canadian students want to stay in Canada. In fact, we have a problem with them not wanting to go and do placements internationally because we live in a good, safe country. I think that is even more important right now. I do believe we have the right environment to keep our researchers here, but we need to have the money for them to be able to pursue their interests. We really do. That is what it comes down to, quite critically.