Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to our witnesses as we continue this study.
Mr. Vats, I appreciate your testimony. I'm going to agree with you on the infrastructure and the evolution of how the institutions are now working together. I appreciate the fact that we're now incentivizing those collaborations. I know that in the part of the country that I come from, Nova Scotia, in the universities I have visited I've seen that first-hand. We have top-notch infrastructure and also wonderful collaboration happening within the province and also with institutions outside of the province.
I also appreciate the fact that you have acknowledged—I think we all do—that the funding levels are a challenge. Just this past weekend, it was Mother's Day, and I went to a barbecue where there were all kinds of post-docs and fellows, because I come from that circle, as my children are in that field. The barbecue was attended by about 12 to 15 of those post-docs and fellows. I was asking them about that funding.
I do agree with you, and I appreciate your testimony that students are very driven to do their best and to conduct the best research possible. They are extremely driven and they want to do their best. The institutions they're working in are also top-notch, I would say. I agree with you, but they still have to make ends meet, and it's difficult. I was asking them, and obviously what we're hearing here is correct. Before I was on the committee and studying all of this, I had no idea about a lot of that.
From your perspective, are there any international models you're aware of that we can look into for funding those students, post-doctoral fellows, these people who have been in the field for x number of years and are still making a pittance? Isn't “pittance” the English word for it?
For a lot of them, it has taken a decade and a half and perhaps more to get to where they are. To be frank, it's really difficult, really tough, for them to bear. I guess the question is, what else can we be doing to help them? How can we direct the tri-councils? What else can we do to improve things for them? What are we missing?
We're missing something, and I'm just looking to see from your perspective what else could we be doing as a country and as a government. I do appreciate the fact that even though I'm a mother of two of them like that, I had no idea, so most Canadians would not know. They would have no idea of the dollar amounts and the funding and so on. What else can we do?