Science and Research committee  They vary from university to university and department to department, but they range roughly between $7,000 and $11,000. On average, most students who have a stipend have $15,000 in their pocket after tuition. With that, they have to pay rent and they have to pay for food, and most cannot do that in any Canadian city I'm aware of.

Science and Research committee  Our recommendations are the minimum if we would like to remain competitive. If we would like to be the leader, it would have to be higher.

Science and Research committee  The system in Canada for research is absolutely in crisis. We are losing our talent every single day. We are not going to get them back unless we invest majorly in the system, particularly in trying to retain and attract graduate students and post-doctoral scholars, who are the future of innovation and discovery in Canada.

Science and Research committee  Invest in the future of this country by investing in graduate students and post-docs through scholarships, fellowships and grants. That's the solution. It's an easy win. The logic is clear. Why we have not seen it is hard to understand, especially when the minister—

Science and Research committee  It was a colleague I was speaking to from biochemistry. I'm not going to name the university. I'm not going to say it's within Manitoba, because it's actually a system-wide issue across Canada. They were explaining to me the funding levels. The minimum stipend level before tuition—and all students have to pay tuition with the stipends they get—was $17,500 for master's students and Ph.D. students in 2023.

Science and Research committee  It does not look good for us is the simple answer. If you go to Germany, the U.K., Australia or any of the countries in Scandinavia, they are all paying much higher levels. Their entire systems have been increasing in recent years, because there's a race to try to own innovation and discoveries.

Science and Research committee  Yes, because of 20 years of stagnation in funding, we're having to find other sources of funding to support the students, who just cannot afford to live in cities like Toronto, where I am. That's coming from increased teaching. It's coming from increased awards—coming from our endowments from the universities.

Science and Research committee  It's not just about these specific students who are receiving these scholarships and fellowships. Those scholarships and fellowships are setting the level that most universities set their stipends at. For example, if NSERC keeps their master scholarships at $17,500, most universities are going to aim for the minimum.

Science and Research committee  It's an absolutely urgent issue. Minister Champagne, on Thanksgiving, said that he heard us and that they are going to address it as soon as possible. We saw that as a good-faith commitment. We did not see any investment in the fall economic update. We are disappointed by that, but we saw it as coming in budget 2023.

Science and Research committee  There are four specific requests. One is that the value of graduate scholarships increase by 50% in their value and be indexed to inflation moving forward. The second is that the number of graduate scholarships increase by 50%, because there has been a doubling in the number of graduate students in the system in the last 20 years.

Science and Research committee  We need to invest in both scholarships and fellowships, and grants. There are many students that are supported by scholarships and fellowships, but most students are supported by grants. That's why it's very important we do both at the exact same time by the amounts that I was just suggesting right there, which is a 50% increase in the value of scholarships and a 10% increase in the value of the grants per year for the next five years.

Science and Research committee  Yes. Every Ph.D. student in the country ends up doing years of research and training. On average, it's 5.75 years that a Ph.D. student works to become an expert in their field. We invest a lot in that. On average, that's $35,000 a year that we're investing in them to become some of the best scientists, social scientists, engineers and nuclear physicists, as we were hearing from the other witness.

Science and Research committee  Yes, we have had communications with the current government, leading up to and since the May 1 walkout at 46 institutions coast to coast.

Science and Research committee  We've spoken to a number of individual MPs. We've also spoken to Minister Champagne's office extensively. We've also been speaking with Minister Freeland's office. We were supposed to have a meeting with Minister Freeland on Thursday, but she cancelled the meeting.

Science and Research committee  I'm sorry. Can you restate the question? I thought it was for the other witness.