Evidence of meeting #50 for Science and Research in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Chad Collins Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
It's a level of subsidy that would assist students and separate those rents from market rents. It could be 80% or 60%. You're saying there needs to be a subsidy with that housing support.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
11:55 a.m.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to greet the witness that just joined us, Ms. Muralidharan, to whom my question is directed.
At the committee's previous meeting, Marc Johnson from the Support Our Science movement said that 38% of freshly minted Ph.D.s were leaving for other countries, mainly the United States. We also know that the federal government provides 6,000 scholarships for a student population of 240,000. After doing some quick math, we can see that only 2.5% of students will manage to get a scholarship. I'd also remind everyone that scholarships haven't been indexed in 20 years, so since 2003.
Ms. Muralidharan, my question to you has to do with the Bouchard report, the one prepared by the advisory panel that was put together at the government's request. Specifically, the report suggested there was a possibility of increasing graduate scholarships. One of the report's recommendations was to “significantly increase funding for students and postdoctoral fellows to an internationally competitive level.”
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this recommendation. In your opinion, what constitutes an internationally competitive level for graduate scholarships and, naturally, funding for post-doctoral fellows?
11:55 a.m.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars
Can someone please translate it?
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
We have a translation problem.
Could we get that in writing to you, and then you can respond?
11:55 a.m.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars
Sure, yes. That's okay.
11:55 a.m.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Mr. Chair, could you check whether the witness is using the right channel to hear the interpretation?
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
Do you mean whether she selected it on her Zoom?
There's a globe on the bottom of your screen. With that globe, you should be able to choose “English” audio.
11:55 a.m.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars
That's perfect. I did that.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
11:55 a.m.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Mr. Chair, is it possible to make up for my time?
11:55 a.m.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Between you and me, Mr. Chair, I lost all my speaking time due to an interpretation problem.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
I was watching the clock as you were talking, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas.
11:55 a.m.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Mr. Chair, you're giving me 20 seconds to make up for the two and a half minutes I had. The witness was unable to hear my question because of technical problems with the interpretation.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
11:55 a.m.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Mr. Chair, I'm not certain you're understanding my question. Is it possible to get my time back?
11:55 a.m.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Here's the question I wanted to ask Ms. Muralidharan.
Last March, the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System released the report that it had made available to the government as early as December 2022, known as the Bouchard report. The report made the following recommendation, saying, “the panel also urges the government to significantly increase funding for students and postdoctoral fellows to an internationally competitive level.”
What do you think of this recommendation? In your opinion, what constitutes an internationally competitive level for graduate scholarships and funding for post-doctoral fellows?
11:55 a.m.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars
Yes, we need to increase the value and the number of fellowships that are provided for the post-doctoral scholars. We are aiming that there should be an increase to at least about 60,000. That is where it should start off, as the base value, and definitely there's a lot of room for it to be improved.
We definitely request about 150 new awards, because we have issues. For example, post-docs getting this external funding actually get considered by the majority of the Canadian universities as not employees of their university. That causes a lot of problems.
This is another thing to be thought of when we have new fellowships being set up. We definitely need to budget in for benefits for the post-docs.
Noon
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Cannings is next, for two minutes, please.
Noon
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
I would like to welcome Dr. Muralidharan.
I would like to direct my question to you on the whole question around post-docs. I think you painted an interesting picture of the situation that post-docs are in.
If you talked to a high school graduate and said, “You're a really smart student. You've got the world ahead of you. You should go and get your bachelor's degree, your master's and your Ph.D., and get into academics, get into some great jobs in industry and help Canada with innovation. By the time you're 33 years old, when most young people are starting families, you'll be working 45 hours a week for a $40,000-a-year salary,” I don't know how many people would say “Wow, yes, I should do that.”
You talked about how you have gone from country to country and ended up in Canada. You chose Canada. How does Canada look to other post-docs around the world, when we have funding for these programs at such a low level?