Debates of June 1st, 2021

Opposition Motion—Documents Related to the Transfer of Ebola and Henipah Viruses to the Wuhan Institute of Virology

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I do agree with my colleague that the Liberals have been weak when it comes to responding to the threats posed by the People's Republic of China. Their failure to support our motion on recognizing the Uighur genocide can perhaps be explained by some of this fear.

However, my hunch on today's motion is that this is really more about them covering up their own failures. There were clearly significant problems with the kind of review and oversight that needed to happen in terms of security. I suspect that if we were to actually see these documents, there would be information in the documents that would be embarrassing for the government and would show that the appropriate precautions were not taken by the government in terms of security.

In this case, it is actually more about the Liberals trying to avoid being embarrassed and therefore not wanting the issue brought to light than it is about anything else. The fact is that Liberals have said in the past that Parliament has an unfettered right to access documents. Some Liberal members have even agreed to that at committee, so their inconsistency here really needs to be addressed and responded to.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I share my colleague's concerns with regard to the government's reluctance to produce the documents. It is a worrisome trend that we have seen over the past months.

I wonder if he could comment on one aspect of this that concerns me, which is the rise of anti-Asian racism. At the same time that we push as Parliament to get these documents and to get to the bottom of these questions around the dismissal of the two scientists at the lab in Winnipeg, what steps does the member believe the government should take to combat this worrisome rise of anti-Asian racism here in Canada?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, while I very much welcome the questions from my NDP and Bloc colleagues, I was hoping that after my speech I would get a question from a member of the government. That is what usually happens, and hopefully one of them will actually be willing to stand and put their views on the record on this. They seem reluctant to do that.

To my colleague's very important question, I agree that we need to respond to the threat of rising anti-Asian racism. One of the most critical ways we do that is to establish a clear distinction between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people, as well as Chinese Canadians. The CCP does not speak for the Chinese people and it does not speak for Chinese Canadians.

In fact, many Chinese Canadians are speaking out about how the Chinese Communist Party is threatening or intimidating them. We heard compelling testimony last night about violence and threats of violence that Canadians of Asian origin are experiencing from the Chinese Communist Party when they start to speak out about important human rights issues.

We need to always be clear about the distinction between this hostile, foreign political party that does not represent Chinese culture or Chinese identity and certainly does not represent Chinese Canadians. Then there is the very separate issue of affirming and appreciating the great contributions made by Asian Canadians, many of whom are very critical of the Chinese Communist Party.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. have had 54 scientists resign or be fired as a result of non-disclosure of financial ties to foreign governments. Of the 189 scientists investigated to date, 93% had not disclosed that China was the source of their support.

Seeing how prevalent this situation is in the U.S. makes it all the more imperative that Canadian parliamentarians are fully aware of foreign influences occurring on our soil. Why would the Liberals be hiding these documents, as the security of Canadians is so clearly at risk?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague asks an excellent question. I note that in my time for questions and comments, I still have not received a question from a member of the government. Also, the Liberals are all over the place on this. They have said different things at committee than they have said in the House, and it just shows again that this is something on which they do not want to disclose the information. They do not want to talk about it.

My colleague is absolutely right about the need to do more work in this area. We are seeing other countries have a stronger response to foreign state-backed interference. There are things happening in the United States. A lot of very good things have happened in Australia. Other countries are standing up. We can work together through international networks. I am part of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which is a network of legislators working on these issues.

We do not have to reinvent the wheel. We can learn these best practices. However, the Government of Canada, in particular, has really ignored this issue of foreign state-backed interference, particularly its impact on universities and research institutions. We need to see the government finally start to step up and disclose—

[The Deputy Speaker, Bruce Stanton]

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, today we are debating a motion that deals with a very curious circumstance, to put it mildly, that largely started on March 31, 2019.

Before I describe what the circumstance is, it is important to give a little context around how this played out. A lot of Canadians may only hear about the National Microbiology Laboratory in passing, for example in government press releases. The National Microbiology Laboratory, or the NML, is actually a really important facility in Canada.

I grew up in Winnipeg. I started my career at the University of Manitoba, in the faculty of medicine, as well as in the intellectual property management office there. There is a lot of research that happens between the University of Manitoba and the National Microbiology Laboratory. It is very important research to Canada. A lot of the research that happened around the Ebola vaccine happened at this facility.

It is a very important resource for Canadian research. It also has something called a level 4 containment lab. That means it has the capacity for some of the world's most deadliest viruses to be safely held and researched.

What we are debating today is the fact that one of the researchers affiliated with the National Microbiology Laboratory, on March 31, 2019, coordinated a shipment of the Ebola and Henipah viruses. These are two very lethal and deadly viruses causing hemorrhagic fevers. That shipment was from the Public Health Agency of Canada to the Wuhan Institute of Virology via Winnipeg to Toronto to Beijing on a commercial Air Canada flight. That is something.

A few months later, on July 5, 2019, the researcher who did this, as well as her students, were escorted out of the lab by the Public Health Agency of Canada. This is a fairly pressing issue for Parliament to look at. What happened here?

I want to talk a little about the importance of research and how research happens. I do not want to give the impression that we do not have controls in place. Having worked in research administration in a prior life, which seems more and more distant by the day, there are usually protocols put in place whenever any sort of biological agent or material is transferred. There are actually agreements called material transfer agreements.

The reason why we need to find out what happened here is to find out whether or not the controls that we have in place in Canada are adequate or if they were followed in this situation. What happened? What was the result of it? Are our controls adequate? When we are talking about something like the Ebola virus, we would think that the public would want to know this information.

This is definitely something that Parliament should be seized with for the following reasons. Any time biological agents are transferred outside of Canada, or even within Canada, we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that process is ethical and that it follows ethical standards. I could spend 20 minutes just talking about what that means, in terms of international agreements and Canadian law. We have to make sure, frankly, that that stuff is not going to be weaponized.

We have to make sure that anybody who is allowed to work in these facilities is vetted in the most profound way and that they are screened to make sure they do not have affiliations with organizations that may not have Canada's best interests at heart. Even on a more commercial basis, we need to make sure that when materials are transferred, the intellectual property, any sort of new products or knowledge that come out of that research, is shared appropriately, according to Canadian and international law.

We need to find out what happened here. Clearly, something happened. Ebola was transferred by a researcher who was affiliated with the National Microbiology Laboratory, and then they were escorted out of the lab six months later. Then a bunch of other weird stuff sort of happened in that period of time.

One would think we should now be debating what happened and whether we need better controls, but what we are debating today is the fact that the Liberal government will not release the documents surrounding this incident, which is very concerning. The motion before us today, which the Liberals are frankly obstructing and which they obstructed at the health committee, compels the government to give parliamentarians information on what happened so we can evaluate whether processes were followed. My suspicion is that they were not. Subsequently, we can ensure that this never happens again.

The motion before the House would compel the government to put forward documents to the public for scrutiny, not just for Parliament to scrutinize but also the media. It is being blocked every step of the way. We have tried to do this multiple times through the parliamentary committee process. It is not just these documents that the Liberals are blocking. Colleagues on the health committee with me were being filibustered by the government on something as simple as a motion to get the agenda for the health committee.

There is an article in The Globe and Mail today about the Liberal government wanting to run the clock out on Parliament. By that, I mean it is obstructing everything so that Parliament will rise at the end of June with no answers on this. I know there is a lot of speculation about the Prime Minister potentially unilaterally calling an election in September. If nothing happened and everything is okay, why are these documents being blocked on something as serious as questions around the transfer of the Ebola virus? I have never seen something like this.

I used to work directly in academic research administration. There are a lot of very serious issues and concerns. Paperwork is put in place in order to hopefully ensure that bad things do not happen. If the system fails, we need to correct that. I have to say that I absolutely support international research collaboration, but it has to be done under a framework of safety and integrity. This motion comes at a time when Canada, frankly, has a very balkanized patchwork of rules and regulations among Canadian universities, our national research facilities, corporate research facilities and international research facilities. I do not think there is any political motivation or partisanship in saying that if a problem happened with this, we need to fix it and Parliament needs to put forward ways to do it.

There are a lot of questions in the world right now about what happened at the Wuhan lab on a lot of other issues. This issue is with regard to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada and a sample of the Ebola virus. We need to know what happened, where the system failed, whether an appropriate remedy was put in place, and whether we have the potential for this to happen again. I just cannot believe that we have to spend a day of debate to force the Liberals to produce documents that are owned by the public.

The public, taxpayers, voting citizens and every person in Canada has the right to know what happened so we can make sure that our processes for research are safe and integrous. This is the Ebola virus. To be clear, we should not be transferring any material without rules in place, but this is a level 4 pathogen. This is something that there should be absolute transparency on, and it is shocking to me that we are having to force this debate in the House.

If there is nothing to hide and everything is fine, why is the Liberal government delaying and obstructing the release of these documents related to the transfer of the Ebola virus to China at every step of the way?

I hope my Liberal colleagues will vote in favour of this motion. I hope they will talk to their folks in the government and say that we need to pass this motion, and I hope we can spend time in debate afterward talking about how to strengthen this system so that Canada can participate in research internationally without these types of concerns.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to voting in favour of this motion, because I fundamentally believe in the concept of parliamentary supremacy and in our right as legislators to hold the government to account and to send for papers in aiding us to do that.

The member talked a bit about the struggles we have in protecting sensitive information in the context of international collaboration, and she referenced the fact that the system we have in Canada is quite decentralized. We have many different moving parts, and sometimes they operate in different jurisdictions.

I realize her answer will be informed by the production of these papers, but I was wondering if she could expand a bit. Does she have any preliminary ideas on how the federal government might start trying to fix the current decentralized system we have in Canada, to add a little more security while respecting our need to collaborate internationally?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I wish I had five hours to answer this question. It is such a good question.

At the core of it, there is value. The taxpayer pays for research in Canada. There is a public good associated with research. We have to start with looking at the public benefit derived from research and how we best protect that and promote it, both from a safety perspective and also from the perspective of intellectual property, commercialization and knowledge translation.

The fact that we have a balkanized, patchwork system of intellectual property ownership strategies among Canadian universities, and of security screening properties across research institutions as well, is concerning from a safety perspective and also for Canada's ability to get value from its research. This is such an important area of parliamentary discussion. It is one I feel passionately about, and I certainly look forward to collaborating with any member of any political stripe on putting together national policy that makes sense in this area, especially in light of the fact that Canada has to become more self-reliant in producing things like vaccines to be more resilient for future pandemics.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleague for Calgary Nose Hill entirely. This should really be a very straightforward matter of getting information. This is a matter of the utmost national security interest, yet last week in response to a question from our deputy leader, instead of trying to act in a co-operative way, the Prime Minister actually accused Conservatives of trying to foment anti-Asian hatred.

I am wondering if my colleague could comment on the irrationality of this type of response.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, anti-Asian hate is real, and every Canadian has a responsibility to combat it right now. It is disgusting. I think my colleague who spoke earlier talked about the delineation between the political party that governs China and the people of China and Chinese Canadians. It is something we have to work so hard on.

The fact the Prime Minister would do this is morally repugnant. I would just say that the Prime Minister is a former blackface practitioner, and he really does not have a leg to stand on when it comes to talking about racism.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my friend and colleague, the member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie.

I am pleased to speak today about the importance of research that is so critical to the health and well-being of all Canadians as well as to our country's prosperity. Before I begin, I wish to first thank the residents of Vaughan—Woodbridge and York Region for their response to signing up and receiving the vaccine. As of today, nearly 73% of eligible York Region residents have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. It has been fantastic work by everyone. I wish to encourage all residents to continue to sign up and to check for continual updates at york.ca and through my communications channels. Getting vaccinated is how we will exit the pandemic. Let us continue to make great progress together.

On another note, we were all shocked and saddened by the news of the mistreatment of indigenous children who were sent to residential schools and never able to return home to their families. The loss of these children, these innocent souls, is an insufferable loss for their families and the communities they were a part of. This is a tragic and shameful part of Canada's history. The news from the Kamloops Indian Residential School is truly unfathomable.

Returning to the opposition's motion, support for research has been central to Canada's domestic and international efforts to tackle COVID-19. Since the onset of the global pandemic, the Canadian research community has risen to the challenge at an unprecedented pace. Canada is fortunate to be home to some of the world's best and most innovative minds across academia and industry. They have come together in a concerted and collaborative response to advance urgent and impactful research.

Through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, or CIHR, our government has been working hand in hand with research partners across Canada and around the globe to find solutions to this pandemic and protect Canadians and their loved ones. As members may know, CIHR was the first government-funded agency in the world to launch an open call for COVID-19 research, in February 2020. In response to the emergence of the pandemic, CIHR quickly shifted its focus to the mobilization and acceleration of Canadian research on COVID-19. It did so while committing to a balanced portfolio of research into medical and social countermeasures against the pandemic and supporting the research community through pandemic disruptions. It was a remarkable pan-Canadian effort that continues to contribute invaluable evidence to inform and guide the health response to COVID-19 across the country.

Our government is proud to support Canadian research that has made, and continues to make, a real difference. It should be no surprise, therefore, that Canada's scientific leadership and expertise are also renowned worldwide. Our academic researchers, leaders in their field, have established strong and successful international networks, most notably with partners in the United States and Europe.

At the government level, we are also working closely with international global counterparts to optimize the impact of COVID-19 research for all. A global health threat, after all, requires global action, and collaboration has proved eminently valuable to mobilizing a rigorous scientific response since the earliest days of the pandemic. This is why we took rapid steps, in concert with global partners, to leverage existing international research partnerships and to forge impactful new collaborative measures.

For instance, on January 31, 2020, CIHR signed a joint statement with Wellcome and 65 other signatories to share research data and findings relevant to the COVID-19 outbreak. Shortly thereafter, CIHR played a leadership role in a forum convened by the World Health Organization, which informed the development of a coordinated global research road map.

Through CIHR, we are also participating in the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness: an international consortium of 29 research-funding organizations worldwide. This network plays an important role in facilitating preparedness and rapid-response research during significant infectious disease outbreaks, including COVID-19. In fact, it is a testament to Canada's scientific leadership that CIHR is currently chair of this international consortium. As pandemic research efforts and outputs accelerated through CIHR, our government signed a joint statement with international partners to make sure that data resulting from clinic trials was disclosed publicly and in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, the scientific director for CIHR's Institute of Population and Public Health led an international effort to identify and prioritize research needs for rebuilding in a post-pandemic era while safeguarding progress on the UN sustainable development goals. This vast collaborative effort resulted in the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery, which was released in November 2020.

As we take sound action to rebuild a stronger, more prosperous and more resilient Canada, our government will further invest to strengthen international co-operation in science. We believe in science. This includes mobilizing for the prevention and response to future pandemics, as well as other emerging global health threats that may loom on the horizon.

It means leveraging the outputs of our international research collaborations to strengthen Canada's life sciences sector and revitalize our domestic capacity in biomanufacturing and medical innovation. International collaboration has been a critical element to the successful mobilization of both the Canadian and the global research communities long before the pandemic and in response to it.

Long-standing relationships with international partners forged in response to other health issues such as HIV/AIDS, antimicrobial resistance and dementia made the rapid research response to the pandemic possible.

Looking forward, we are encouraged by recent developments, such as efforts by the G7 to address gaps and improve the effectiveness of scientific co-operation, including in clinical trials. This includes addressing barriers and making clinical research more effective through better representation of diverse populations around the world, all while continuing to address our domestic needs and context.

Of paramount importance to the Canadian context is that we remain committed to supporting community-led, meaningful and culturally safe indigenous health research. Through CIHR's rapid response program—

[The Deputy Speaker, Bruce Stanton]

We have a point of order from the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, although the Standing Orders do provide general latitude for a member who is eventually getting to the point, there are still some limits to the requirements of topicality. I would encourage you to ask the member to remember we are debating a particular motion and ask the member to address the motion being debated in the House today.

[The Deputy Speaker, Bruce Stanton]

Indeed, relevance is one of those issues relative to the content of speeches in the House. Certainly, the rather precise nature of today's opposition motion may not afford the same degree of latitude members normally have.

I have been listening to the hon. member. I see his discussion on the merits of research and international co-operation as being, in fact, pertinent to the topic at hand from the standpoint of providing background. I recognize he has three minutes remaining in his time, so if he stays on that track, we are well within the bounds of relevance.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the research and cooperation of international research is obviously very important for me, for our government and for the world to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure our national security interests are afforded by and taken care of. We also have to ensure that we have international cooperation between all parties when considering intellectual property and issues of the like.

I thank the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, for his intervention, but I also wish to address that research and science are of fundamental importance to our government, unlike other governments in the past.

At a global level, we recognize that shared risks, like pandemics and climate change, require collective action. That is why yesterday the Government of Canada, through CIHR, launched a new framework for action on global health research that will mobilize Canadian research to achieve the greatest impact on health and health equity.

As we work to strengthen international research, we are also cognizant that safeguarding our investment in research, Canada's intellectual property on our large economy, is crucial. That is why, in collaboration with academia and industry, we are taking measures to identify and minimize security risks, protect data and disseminate best practices to the research community. For instance, in the fall, the government launched an online security portal to help scientists across the country assess their level of risk and protect their work. We are committed to vigilance and, with our partners, we will do what is necessary to protect Canadian innovation.

Although we are optimistic about the future and what we can accomplish through international cooperation in science, the foremost priority for Canadians remains a swift recovery from the pandemic. This includes addressing the immediate, as well as the potential long-term, impacts of COVID-19. As our knowledge of the pandemic evolves, along with Canadians' needs, the Government of Canada, through CIHR, continues to fund research to address gaps in priority areas of COVID-19 study.

Earlier this year, as part of the federal variants of concern strategy, CIHR once again mobilized the research community to respond to the COVID-19 variants emerging worldwide. This includes support for research coordination in Canada and with global partners to provide decision-makers with rapid guidance regarding drug therapy, vaccine effectiveness and our public health strategies.

We look forward to our continued collaboration with our domestic and international partners, including the WHO, on this important issue. We also continue to support the efforts of Canadian researchers, including those working with international colleagues to address other emergent areas of concern, such as post-COVID condition, also known as long COVID.

Canada's research response to COVID-19 is cutting-edge, focusing on the needs of peoples and communities across the country, while contributing to international efforts against a shared global health threat.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the member spoke at length about the value of international research cooperation. In most cases, in principle, I would certainly agree with him.

However, we are speaking specifically today about instances of cooperation between the Winnipeg lab and the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Medical Sciences, as well as other forms of collaboration between Chinese military-affiliated labs and a Canadian lab. This pertains to dangerous viruses, when we know those labs were involved in gain-of-function experiments. That is, military-affiliated labs in China are intentionally making viruses more dangerous.

I would like a clear answer from this member because we have not had much clarity in terms of what his views are on this motion at all. Does he think that there is a limit? Does he think that Canadian researchers should not be cooperating with foreign militaries in cases where those militaries are, as we speak, involved in committing genocide against minority communities? Is that a point beyond which research cooperation cannot and should not occur?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, first off, our government takes any threat to research security, intellectual property and domestic business interests seriously. We have established policies and processes through the Public Health Agency of Canada that allow for appropriate scientific collaboration while adhering to established security controls.

That is the way we proceed in our government. That is the way our researchers, which are the best in the world, proceed in what they are doing and what they are undertaking.

[Scott Duvall, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, does the member agree that transparency on public health issues is the most effective way to combat disinformation and conspiracy theories?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, of course transparency and accountability are very important. Obviously, we understand that. When there are issues dealing with privacy or national security, where disclosure cannot be made public, we must have a balance in our system. We aim to achieve that balance on a continual basis.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, as this is my first opportunity to enter into the debate today, I want to say that I will be voting for this motion to address, as the Conservative Party has suggested we should, the arrangements between scientists in Winnipeg, the People's Republic of China and its government.

Since this hon. member has raised issues of international scientific collaboration and research, I wonder if he could explain why the decision was taken by the Government of Canada, on the eve of COVID, to cut the funds to the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, which would have given us a much more advanced warning of what we were facing with COVID‑19.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, our government has invested vast resources in research funding, both domestically and with international partnerships, and we will continue to do so. I look forward to our scientists continuing to co-operate on an international level with their peers to ensure that the COVID‑19 vaccines are distributed globally, that further research on other matters at hand remain as such, and that we continue going down that path.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, very quickly, does the member agree with this motion? Does he intend to vote for or against it?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I continue to analyze the motion at hand. What I will say is the Public Health Agency of Canada employs some of the best researchers and scientists in Canada. Obviously there are many issues that cannot be disclosed for privacy implications, so we must balance national security interests with the issue of transparency. That is how we will proceed forward.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages (FedNor)]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to participate in the debate on the Conservative motion. I am connecting to this virtual Parliament from Sault Ste. Marie, which is the traditional territory of the Garden River First Nation, Batchewana First Nation and the Métis people. I want to acknowledge that our hearts are very sad with the discovery of the 215 graves. We are committed to truth and reconciliation and will continue to move forward with it.

Science and research are more important than ever. As the global pandemic has made abundantly clear, science and research need to take centre stage to help us address economic, environmental and social challenges.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have mobilized Canadian researchers and life science companies to support large-scale efforts to combat COVID-19. As part of its more than $1 billon COVID-19 response fund, our government invested $217 million in coronavirus research and medical countermeasures to advance projects undertaken by university researchers and others.

We have also supported the mobilization of experts from Canada's scientific policy and health communities to launch CanCOVID. Hosted by the University of Toronto, this rapid response network connects researchers on different angles of the pandemic, from diagnostics to studying the impacts on vulnerable populations.

Expert advice from the research community and industry has been a key part of our response. The government relies on an evidence-based decision-making process in these and other areas.

For example, Canada's chief science advisor convenes committees of experts to assess the state of knowledge on key issues related to the pandemic. A vaccine task force was also created and comprised of vaccine, immunology experts and industry leaders to provide advice on Canada's vaccine strategy.

However, our commitment to science did not start with the pandemic. Since 2016, the government has committed more than $13 billion to support research and science across Canada. Building on these investments, budget 2021 represents more than $3 billion in new funding for Canadian researchers and scientists. This includes support for cutting-edge life science research, biotechnology and for national strategies on artificial intelligence, quantum and genomics.

This support recognizes the importance of science and research to address future challenges and as a key pillar of our economic growth strategy. This includes more than $440 million over 10 years to support a pan-Canadian artificial intelligence strategy: $360 million over seven years to launch a national quantum strategy; and $400 million over six years to support a new pandemic genomics strategy. Each of these strategies will help advance key technological advantages for Canada and ensure we have strong communities of research, talent and commercial activity across this great nation.

The Government of Canada recognizes that Canadian innovators need our support to ensure our economic benefits from the enormous growth opportunities ahead. By leveraging our strengths and talent, we can ensure that Canadian values are embedded across widely-used global technology platforms. Canadian scientists and entrepreneurs are well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities and Canada benefits from advances in these technologies through effective commercialization.

In addition, we recognize the importance of Canada's colleges in assisting small businesses to develop and adopt new technologies and processes. We know that small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. As we focus on recovery, we must help businesses seize new opportunities to innovate, grow and become more competitive. That is why budget 2021 proposes $52.6 million over two years through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the industrial research assistance program to support over 1,400 new collaborations between colleges and small businesses.

We have also learned of the importance of being better prepared for possible future pandemics. Strategic investments in cutting-edge life sciences, research and biotechnology are a critical part of that. These growing fields are not only essential to our safety, but they are fast-growing sectors that support well-paying jobs and attract new investments.

We will make investments that will help protect the health of Canadians in the future by setting aside almost $1 billion to strengthen Canada's biomanufacturing and life science sectors, including $500 million for the Canada Foundation for Innovation to support the bioscience capital and infrastructure needs of post-secondary institutions and research hospitals; $250 million for the federal research granting council to create a new tri-council biomedical research fund; and new investments in anti-microbiological resistance, to name a few.

The National Research Council is also working with partners across government to advance research and development for vaccines and therapies to prevent and treat the spread of COVID-19, in line with the best advice provided by the Government of Canada’s vaccine task force and therapeutics task force.

NRC’s industrial research assistance program is also working with Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada to provide support to three innovative firms to scale up production facilities and increase Canada’s biomanufacturing capacity. Our continued success in science and innovation and in addressing global challenges to our well-being will come not only from domestic initiatives, but also from strong and sustained international collaboration.

Much has been achieved to date by Canadian researchers who are constantly working collaboratively across borders to achieve research excellence.