Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
First of all, let me acknowledge all the people who have come here today. I think you see the importance of this study.
Let me humbly point out that I am the first university graduate in my family. I understood what it was like to have to work while studying. I also understood what it was like to dream of going to university. I worked for almost 10 years, Mr. Chair, to save up for my dream of going to university. Today, when I look at these people, I am very proud that they are standing up to send a message to the government, of course, but also to say that things have to change. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
I will continue with my questions, not forgetting the presence of the people here, particularly Ms. Laframboise, whom I want to thank for her leadership in the Support Our Science movement.
I was going to forget something, but that would be impossible. Last week, I was with them on Parliament Hill, as thousands of students from nearly 50 universities across Canada came to protest to ask the government to take action on scholarship indexing. These students and these people know who was there with them. Government representatives were invited, and I can confirm that they were not. I cannot ignore that. Today, I hear some of government representatives saying that they already know about the problem and they understand it. I'm not sure they really understand it. In any case, if it was so important to them, they would have been there with the students. So much for understanding priorities.
I will turn to you, Professor Andrade. As you said so eloquently, Canada has reached a breaking point in science and research. But I think the situation is even more serious. I think Canada is past the breaking point in science. Canada is the only G7 country to have reduced its investment in research and development as a proportion of its gross domestic product over the past 20 years. It is the only G7 country to have lost researchers since 2016. The federal government is condemning its best and brightest to live below the poverty line during their graduate studies.
I'll give a very concrete example. A basket of service goods that cost $100 in 2003 costs $150.63 in 2023. That is a 50.63% increase. How much have scholarships been indexed over the past 20 years? The answer is zero. Understandably, the math is pretty simple.
Budget 2023 was a perfect opportunity to respond to the investments of our competitors, including the United States, who announced major investments in research, but we have invested zero dollars. This is a complete and utter abandonment of our researchers and students.
Professor Andrade, what can you tell us about that?