Ms. Clifford, I acknowledge all the initiatives you may have taken to improve the presence of science in French. However, you are surely aware that 50% of French-speaking researchers, who represent a little over 20% of the population of researchers in Canada, make their applications in English.
You can tell me that you equalize the amount of funding, but we know that 50% of these researchers are already submitting their applications in English, because the success rates for funding are higher when they apply in English. At the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, or CIHR, in particular, we know that success rates are higher when applications are submitted in English.
I understand the efforts being made, but the flip-flopping still shows us that there is an imbalance and there is discrimination against French-speaking researchers in Canada when it comes to access to research funding, particularly in the case of research activities in French in Canada.
I want to come back to my original question.
How do you explain the fact that 90% of funding is allocated to 15 universities at the Canadian Institutes for Health Research?
It is fine to say over and over that we believe in this ideological way of understanding excellence, but excellence also exists outside the 15 big universities. The rest of the universities in Canada receive only 10% of the funding.
How can we ensure that scientific research in health progresses and take on the challenges facing society when this funding is concentrated in the academic centres at only 15 universities in Canada?