Madam Speaker, I know the hon. member wants to ask the minister but, unfortunately, today she has me, the lowly parliamentary secretary.
As the hon. member indicated, Canada continues to be a world leader in terms of its support for post-secondary research. We rank first in the G7 and second after Sweden among the 30 OECD countries in terms of higher education R and D expenditures as a percentage of GDP.
Last year, the granting councils underwent strategic review, which is an ongoing, important tool used by government to ensure that all spending is used as efficiently and effectively as possible. As part of the review process, the granting council presidents identified a number of areas where funding from what they determined to be low performing programs could be reallocated to higher priorities.
It is also important to put the review in context. The overall budget for the three granting councils is about $2.5 billion per year, so the cut of $150 million over three years through strategic review represents a very small part of their budget.
In addition, through the federal S and T strategy announced by the Prime Minister on May 17, 2007, the government has continued to demonstrate a strong commitment to S and T. Specifically, through the last three budgets, the government has invested over $7 billion in additional new S and T funding.
From budgets 2006 to 2009, this government provided significant increases in funding to the granting councils, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, for their core programming.
Budget 2006 provided additional funding of $40 million per year to the three granting councils. Budget 2007 invested a further $85 million per year. In last year's budget, the granting councils received another increase of $80 million per year of funding in areas of benefit to Canadians.
These funding increases, $205 million per year in total, are cumulative. They represent ongoing permanent increases in core funding for the granting councils.
Our most recent budget, budget 2009, provided over $5 billion in new S and T investments, one of the most substantial budget investments in S and T in Canadian history. Of this over $5 billion investment, Canada will spend $3.8 billion by 2010. Per capita, that is more than what the United States government has earmarked for science and technology in its own stimulus package for the same period.
Given that much of the focus of this budget was on stimulus, we provided a massive $2 billion investment to enhance university and college infrastructure. This initiative, which was part of the government's economic action plan to stimulate economic activity, was in response to the number one priority expressed by university and college presidents.
Budget 2009 and our past investments underscore our understanding of the tremendous importance and value of S and T for our country.