Finance committee  It would depend very much on what it would replace. In other words, my concern--and I think I responded to John McCallum--is if that is the sole investment of the federal government in the post-secondary sector, and that takes away from the investments in research, graduate training, and so on, I would be concerned.

Finance committee  Yes. In fact, we have a very strong relationship with Keyano College; we're offering joint degrees. U of A degrees can be received right here, and we're doing this right across the province. We have MOUs with close to twenty colleges where we are offering degrees. It's a very exciting model and again one that accesses the underrepresented and non-traditional students to get into post secondary.

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  You've touched on a really important issue. There is an enormous, and I think an almost excessive, focus on tuition cost, as opposed to affordability. I think one of the challenges we have is that we are keeping our tuitions relatively low compared to most countries. In some respects, that's costing us in quality, and also we are not taking advantage of the potential for some people to pay and translating this into scholarships and bursaries for others who cannot afford it.

Finance committee  No. I think there are a variety of measures. Generally, the universities in the top twenty in the world have some very clear attributes, and that is that they are destinations for everybody. Faculty want to go there, the best students want to go there, and the best researchers from around the world want to go there.

Finance committee  I have two comments. Of course, one is to continue to ensure that resources are in place to allow major universities like ours to offer degrees in those communities, because one way to keep people there is not to relocate them in the first place. Many would much rather receive a degree from the University of Alberta at Fort McMurray than to have to move to Edmonton.

Finance committee  On a number of fronts the university is already working with the oil sands companies. Certainly we've had a lot of work with Suncor and Imperial Oil and so on. This would include the universities of Calgary and Lethbridge. A number of the technologies we're working to develop are actually towards improving the environmental impacts: reducing the amount of water that's being used, reducing the amount of energy that's being used to generate the oil.

Finance committee  I think it's a reflection of the understanding that post-secondary education certainly provides opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have, because the number of jobs that now require post-secondary education is growing much faster than the number of jobs that do not. I think that's the reflection of it.

Finance committee  Sitting here in Fort McMurray, I'd have to say energy. As you know, in a recent speech the Prime Minister said that Canada can be an energy superpower. We have the resource, but we are not necessarily at the cutting edge in terms of the technologies needed, not only to extract the energy economically but to extract the energy in an environmentally friendly way.

Finance committee  It's a very good question. If you look at Canada and compare it to countries like Japan, Korea, and some of the other nations that are really leaders in innovation, you will find that they have a much higher percentage of people who are engineers and scientists, relative to those who are in the arts.

Finance committee  I think it comes down really to the role of the federal government and how it's defined. I see increasing importance for the federal role to be stepped up in the area of innovation; in that area, really that's the investment in graduate training. This is masters and PhDs, who are really at the heart of creating new ideas, new companies, new businesses, which then go on to employ the rest of the people who are educated in the post-secondary sector.

Finance committee  I think the role for the federal government is to create a climate in which the private sector can really take those ideas and make them into commercial outcomes. I think the challenge has been the misconception, in some ways, that academics know how to commercialize research. They don't.

Finance committee  Thank you. Good morning. I am very pleased to be here as part of this consultation process and to lend my perspectives to a very important discussion. Canada, like its global neighbours, is entering a new era, one in which the new global currency is knowledge. As members of this committee, you are well aware of some of the drivers of this: economic growth in countries like India and China; the aging workforce in Canada, North America, and Europe; the rapid transmission of knowledge and information; profound advances in science, technology, and innovation; and the great global challenges that we share—climate change, human security, and so on.