Mr. Speaker, I would first like to congratulate my hon. colleague who gave a good description of the overall picture. The Liberal Party motion is very relevant in today's economic climate of globalization, where competition is extremely fierce and comes from around the world. As we know, in order to compete, we must focus on the basics such as innovation, research and development. Nearly everything must start with those basic elements, if we really want to succeed economically. However, the reality is that most elements that can be affected by, and that should be the focus of innovation, research and development, are not getting enough attention. As my hon. colleague indicated, this affects many areas, from aerospace and defence to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
The Prime Minister, along with the well-known member for Beauce—although not well-known for his parliamentary work—presented the policy statement on science and technology. We must revisit that in order to better understand what is going on behind all of this. The statement was disappointing, to say the least. The government announced new priorities, but no new measures. Those priorities were definitely more in line with Canada's needs than those of Quebec. Ottawa wanted to be more directly involved in our universities, by redirecting more student research to graduate programs.
As my colleague said, the document does not respond to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology report on the manufacturing industry, which recommended substantially increasing federal funding for industrial research and making tax credits for R and D refundable. By the way, what was happening in the textile industry at the time is still happening in the softwood lumber industry. Innovation and research and development were needed in these sectors at the time, just as they are needed today. These priorities therefore meet Canada's needs much better than Quebec's.
Regarding federal research, we know that the government puts a great deal of emphasis on technology transfers to companies and plans to focus its own research on the needs of industry. This federal priority meets Ontario's needs more than Quebec's. Quebec is the only place in North America where commercial companies do most of the research themselves. This means that they are less dependent on technology transfers from federal research activities.
In Ontario, the federal government accounts for 83% of government research funding, while the Ontario government provides 16.9%. In Quebec, the Quebec government provides 31.8% of research funding, nearly a third. Quebec therefore gets less federal support. Quebec receives only 19.4% of the funding for research done directly by the federal government, while Ontario gets 58.3%. Technology transfers will likely follow the same pattern.
To help Quebec, Ottawa would have had to distribute its own research activities better and provide more support for companies that fund research themselves. That is not what it did. It has also interfered more directly in universities. The government is critical of the fact that university research has little practical application in industry. It therefore plans to get more involved in directing university research in technical fields such as engineering, so that discoveries can then be transferred to industry. Without increasing funding, it will focus its support more on these areas.
As we know, after years of encroachment into education, the federal government is today investing more than the Government of Quebec into Quebec university research. It plans to use these funds to more closely direct the areas of research by our post-graduate students.
The government plan is in fact a ploy to disguise new oil subsidies. It is announcing that it will refocus research activities in the national interest from the social and economic points of view. It has set four priorities: environmental sciences and technologies; natural resources and energy; health sciences and technologies and related life sciences; information and communications technologies.
In Quebec, the two main R and D industries are aerospace and defence, along with pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Ottawa, on the other hand, does not consider them priorities. There is a concern that its support for environmental technologies and energy will only use taxpayer dollars for research activities that will lessen oil and gas company pollution.
Many points have been touched on, so I would like to revisit the university situation. A graduate student has sent me an email in which he questions the government's intentions, after reading on page 107 of the 2009 budget that “Scholarships granted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council will be focused on business-related degrees”. He is not the only one to question this.
Having checked the figures, the student in question writes that there is an announcement in the budget of an increase of 20% in SSHRC funding. He wonders about this new condition, and whether this measure will apply solely to business-related degrees. He also wonders whether this new condition will hamper the awarding of past funding, and whether this is a separate increase with a new condition attached, or whether the government is changing the entire Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and making its funding subject to this new condition.
He also wonders why these funds are meant for business-related degrees, adding that the Conservatives are behind the problems we are now facing, that is, the economic crisis. He goes on to say that it is not fair to other fields that used to be funded, such as law and sociology in particular, and that plurality and diversity of areas of study should be maintained.
He also mentioned that the Conservatives provided $50 million to the Institute of Quantum Computing, located on the campus of the University of Waterloo. This is, he says, the institute that developed the Blackberry. The owner of that company already funds the university rather generously. It does sound like what the federal government is seeking is a return on investment.
The newspaper today reports that the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities denounced such tied funding, which they perceive to be a denial of the usefulness of research in social sciences and humanities during these times of economic crisis. It denounces and condemns the Conservatives' interference in determining the direction research should take.
In these times of economic crisis, grants are obviously important for innovation, research and development. To follow the logic in the email I received from that student about who discussed business-related degrees, I would say that perhaps substantial grants should be given in science and economics so that our economists can finally change some rules or adjust certain basic rules to ensure that our economy will get better and better.
In the current context of globalization where competition is fierce, there things are important in both the manufacturing and forestry industries, and these are innovation, research and development.