Canadian Government Cuts Research Spending Ups Micromanagement. (January 29, 2009)

The opening of the media release reads: "The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, today tabled a comprehensive budget plan to stimulate economic growth, restore confidence and support Canadians and their families during a synchronized global recession.

However, the detail, really quasi-detail of funding for research has the sector worried the emigration of researchers back across the boarder to the US may be a real possibility. Scientists say President Obama's stimulus package just passed by the US House of Representatives and being debated in the Senate provides so much support for research that Canadian scientists will be tempted to cross the border, thereby offsetting gains made over the past decade. “That’s one of our worries,” says Claire Morris, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “You know how many people we attracted back with our Canada Research Chairs program. The flow can go both ways.”

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council will suffer an aggregate reduction of $113 million over the next three years.

It's true that the budget contains extra funding with in the research sector but with strings. It promises $488.5 million for the Canada Foundation for Innovation to hold a research infrastructure competition by 2011, but with the priority areas to be set by the federal industry minister. And while there will be $71.2 million over 3 years for 500 new doctoral, and 1000 new master's, scholarships under the Canada Graduate Scholarships program, an unspecified number will be allocated for “business-related degrees.”

“For a government that says we can’t pick winners and losers in the economy," says Jim Tuck, head of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, "it seems to sure be willing to pick winners and losers in research rather than letting scientists make those determinations through peer review.”