Gary Goodyear

[Automotive Industry, March 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, of course, this government has put forward $1 billion in a green technology fund which that member over there is voting against. I will say, though, that the Minister of Industry has been working very hard with the auto industry for quite a while now. With my premier, Dalton McGuinty, we are getting it done. We are taking a firm look at all the conditions. We want to make sure that we find the right balance between protecting the taxpayers' dollars and actually moving this industry forward. That is what we are doing.

[Business of Supply, March 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the member is still not willing to recognize the fact that the money he is talking about was actually returned to the NRC, one of the granting councils. In fact, we upped it to $200 million for IRAP, which was the number one program we heard about in prebudget consultations. That is necessary research for our industries and manufacturing sectors. I might point out that we did not hear from the member.

Some of the basic research the member denies is going on includes nanotechnology for biomedical devices. What is wrong with that? It includes neutron stars and black holes, natural plant products, and Aristotelian philosophy. It sounds pretty basic to me. Ocean technology has a bit of importance for our country, but the member over there is trying to tell Canadians that we are not funding basic research.

There is research into pain and child health, marine prediction, occupational health psychology, genomics, bioinformatics, behavioural neuroscience, public policy, and thrombosis. The member is a medical doctor. He should know the need for basic medicine. The member is choosing to ignore the facts in citing the very smallest thing to scare Canadians and scientists and to project incorrect information.

[Business of Supply, March 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to make a comment to the member opposite.

By the way, I would like to thank him for supporting the budget that contains all these measures he now speaks against.

The member is absolutely wrong. There is $1 billion for green technology, so he has either not read the budget or is misleading. Budget 2008 had over $600 million going straight to basic research. This budget has $1.5 billion for science and technology, the vast majority going to discovery research and basic research.

My question is this. The member cites legislated strategic reviews of the granting councils, which they did and they found some areas that, in their opinion, were not that valuable. They recommended that we redirect that money into other programs, which we did.

The member over there did not stand once and vote against those strategic reviews. The member supported them. Why is he now, in the House, suggesting such misinformation?

[Business of Supply, March 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health has had a very significant and active participation on this file and health. He is a great representative for his riding. We have had many discussions.

The world scientists need the very best places. Some of these facilities require state of the art ventilation, electron microscopes and particle accelerators. If we are not able to provide that type of equipment, then the researchers will not come here. We, therefore, have provided that type of equipment and we have kicked in another $750 million for it.

However, we cannot have leaky roofs at our universities leaking on the brand new electron microscopes. When we had our prebudgetary consultations, the number one issue we heard from our research community, our colleges and universities, was infrastructure. Under the previous government, universities and colleges were allowed to lapse and became in disrepair that some estimate is between $5 billion and $10 billion.

This government took that opportunity to put $2 billion, matched by the provinces or other partners, which equals $4 billion that will go into universities and colleges to give our researchers the very best buildings with the very best equipment. Add that on top of our new money and existing money for scholarships and research programs, we have it all together under one stool. It is the best in the world and it will only get better.

[Business of Supply, March 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the member must be talking about the 50% inflation number because that is the amount by which we have increased scholarships; from $50 million to $75 million, which is a 50% increase.

The overall budget for science and technology initiatives in this country is about $10.1 billion, again, a significant increase over the Liberals.

As I just mentioned for the member, and I am sure he was listening, this budget alone put in an additional $5.1 billion. By anyone's imagination, $10.1 billion is the average annual expenditure on science and tech in this country.

The hon. member mentioned that everything the United States was doing was $60 billion. Normally it is a 10:1 ratio with 10 times the population. Canada is doing significantly better. We are continuing to do that and our increase this year, which is way above inflation, as I am sure the member knows, is done to do two things; to continue to strengthen our science and tech community but also to shore up our universities and colleges where they asked us to put money. So we put additional money there, which will create jobs right now.

[Business of Supply, March 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my colleague, the hon. member for Oshawa.

I am proud to speak today as the new Minister of State for Science and Technology.

I am very proud to stand here today to talk about our government's commitment to Canadian science and technology excellence in all its aspects.

From the very beginning, this government has demonstrated its commitment to building Canada's strong science and technology sector. In fact long ago, in 2006, the Prime Minister actually announced Canada's new science and technology strategy, “Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage”, which was tabled in May 2007.

This is an ambitious strategy, linking the competitive energy of our entrepreneurs to the creative genius of our scientists. It is a multi-year, multi-faceted plan for building a sustainable competitive advantage for Canada through science and technology. We have backed this up with not just words but action, with increased funding in every single budget that we have tabled and put forward in the House.

It is important to note that the global economy, the environment of economics around the world, has changed drastically from when the science and technology strategy was introduced in 2007. That said, the force of our argument for mobilizing science and technology in building distinct Canadian advantages has not changed.

Even before the recession, the global competitiveness of Canadians depended on an entrepreneurial advantage. We knew this and we knew we must redouble our efforts to build a dynamic business environment that supports private sector innovation and promotes the success of Canadian companies at home and abroad. Our plan supports this.

We knew we must also continue our efforts to build a knowledge advantage, targeting resources to support research excellence and leading-edge scientific infrastructure. Technological advances occur rapidly these days, and in the face of a rapidly souring economy we had to adjust the current needs of the nation but stay on course with our plan.

Involved are entrepreneurism, knowledge and, of course, people. The third leg of the strategy is a highly skilled workforce. Canada must also stay the course in building a people advantage that provides Canadians with opportunities to acquire and use science and technology skills and allows Canada to grow its base of scientists and skilled workers while remaining sensitive to our current economic needs.

This government has taken strong action to address all these aspects. Our record on science and technology clearly indicates to anyone who wishes to read it that the government has a strong commitment to basic and applied research in all domains at all levels. Our recent budget shows how we can complete our plan, and do so in the context of the current economy.

Canada is an international leader in post-secondary education and research. We rank first in the G7 and second only to Sweden among the 30 countries that make up the OECD.

All along, our strategy has been supported by the government through substantial science and technology investments. As I have mentioned, in the previous three budgets of 2006, 2007, and 2008, there was almost $2.4 billion in total new funding for scientists, more than any Liberal budget in the past. There was solid new funding for the granting councils for their core programs and to the indirect costs of research programs. I want to emphasize that all these increases are cumulative. They represent ongoing permanent increases in core funding.

These previous three budgets have also included large research investments in arm's-length organizations. For example, the Canada Foundation for Innovation received $590 million in these budgets. There was $240 million, as has been mentioned earlier but ignored by the opposition, given to Genome Canada, and CANARIE received $120 million.

These are great commitments by the government. In building on the strategy, in October 2008 the Prime Minister's plan put me in place as Minister of State (Science and Technology), a position that was cut by the Liberal government.

As all Canadians know that near the end of 2008 the economic situation required creative and innovative thinking. How could we continue with our science and technology strategy, our plan for excellence in science and technology, and, at the same time, help stimulate the economy? Could it be done? With this government, it not only could be done, it has been done.

As I mentioned, the past three budgets, 2006, 2007 and 2008, provided $2.4 billion in new funding. Guess what? Budget 2009 pushes this investment to an all time high of $5.1 billion, an historic and unprecedented injection at a poignant time, a unique time, a critical time for the nation.

Of this $5.1 billion in S and T, $2 billion will go to universities and colleges for their infrastructure, preferably to be used in research initiatives; bricks and mortar. Do members know why? It is because that creates jobs that are immediately required and will help build Canada's S and T future.

Budget 2009 provides $750 million to the Canada Foundation for Innovation for new equipment. That is a brilliant strategy. For the National Research Council's industrial research assistance program, budget 2009 provides $200 million of new money. This is of particular value to the manufacturing sector in Canada.

Budget 2009 also provides $80 million over two years to FPInnovations, a not for profit research institute that focuses on the development of emerging and breakthrough technologies in forestry.

Budget 2009 also provides $50 million to the Institute of Quantum Computing in Waterloo.

Of course, it is the people. It is the scientists in the end who use this great equipment in these great facility, which is why this government established the Canada Excellence Research Chairs program in last year's budget aimed at enabling Canadian universities to recruit and retain the brightest and most promising researchers the world has to offer. This is complemented by the Vanier Canada graduate scholarships program, which will award 500 international and Canadian doctoral students with generous three year scholarships to study and do their work in Canada. We want the best to come here and we want them to stay. They will need the best equipment in the best facilities.

Two weeks ago, I was at McGill University where I announced a $120 million investment for 134 research chairs at 37 different universities across the country.

We have added more scholarships with $87.5 million for 2,500 new scholarships over and above the core programs and 600 graduate internships for our industry.

The investments undertaken to support the science and tech strategy underscore our government's determination to do our part to maintain and build a national competitive advantage.

The global storm will require immediate attention but it will not distract us from our goals. We will use this as an opportunity to drive harder. Our multi-year strategy will secure the nation as the place to invent, to innovate and to discover.

I look forward to working with my parliamentarian colleagues on this important issue.

[Research and Development, March 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister set up the science and tech strategy in 2007. Every budget this government has brought forward increased funding for science and tech. I appreciate that member's support on our budget.

[Research and Development, March 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, while it is true there are some people who like to pick fights to get their names in the paper, I have another way of doing things.

My business is to go forward with our science and tech researchers and to make sure our entrepreneurs have the tools to succeed. My business is the $5.1 billion we put in the budget for science and tech, the $2 billion for colleges and universities, CFI funding and NRC funding. It is about scientists, researchers, buildings and equipment. That is our business.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2009, February 10th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it goes without saying that there has been a rumour going around that the NDP has failed to read the budget. We have just received absolute fact about that. That NDP member has not read the budget. If the member has, she is completely distorting what is in it.

I could cite all day long what this government has done with science and technology.

At the University of Guelph, we have funded a research project that pulls methane gas out of cow manure and what is left is turned into subflooring. That sounds pretty green to me.

At the same university, we have also funded a research project which uses plant fibre as a replacement for oil in asphalt. It sounds pretty green to me.

We are also funding ways to decrease the use of water in the oil sands.

If the member would just read the budget, she would know these are good things for Canadians, but of course the member has already made up her mind. There is no point in having a debate with her because she plans to vote against those green initiatives, and that is shameful.

Will the member now admit that she did not read the budget, or if she did read it, she misunderstood it?

[The Budget, February 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, indeed, the reason Canada is doing so much better than other countries is particularly and primarily because of the intervention of this Prime Minister in 2007. We saw the storm coming and when one looks at the charts, Canada is better in almost every sector. However, we are facing an enormous offshore crisis.

I want to point out, because I am the minister of state for science and tech, that during the best of times in the late 1990s and early 2000s the Liberals actually cut spending to all the granting councils. They cut spending to the NRC and they even cut the minister of state for science and technology. Now, we are facing a bit of a crisis. This government saw it coming two years ago and put forward a solid strategy because we know that intervening and funding science and tech creates jobs and improves our economy.