Science Myopia

These are tough economic times to be sure, and there are areas of government spending that should be cut back, but surely it makes no sense whatever for the Government of Canada to eliminate funding of research to the extent that it has done. And now the announcement that the National Research Council must eliminate three of its research groups and downside yet another.

It's anticipated that as many as three hundred skilled, technical, professional, scientists absorbed in cutting-edge scientific work will see their positions disappear.

Instead of valuing these researchers and taking steps to ensure that they remain committed to this country and its needs, the government has decided the NRC must look for cost cutting measures, like any other government department, at a time when research and development is more critical than ever.

The National Research Council is well known both nationally and internationally for the quality of its research. It does Canada no credit whatever to diminish its efficacy.

The Institute for Information Technology and the Institute for Microstructural Sciences will be phased out of existence as a result of the NRC's reorganization. And we'll be the poorer for it. What kind of sense does this make, when we require increased innovation and scientific commitment to solve the many problems and meet opportunities that the country faces?

We've educated these fine minds and trusted them to gear into research whose results will inevitably bring progress of one sort or another to the country, and to now simply let the mechanisms by which we employ these experts and researchers lapse, makes no sound sense whatever. It is, sad to say, irresponsible. If cost-cutting is the measure by which we grade research and scientific endeavour, we're in a sad state.

How will this reflect back on Canada that despite these units being acknowledged as cutting-edge research groups, whose findings have attracted international plaudits, they've been identified as redundant. All the more so when Canadian scientists often share work and results with their scientific counterparts elsewhere in laboratories around the world.

We do, after all, pride ourselves as a nation of innovators, enterprising searchers for perfection in science and technology.

Government investment on an ongoing basis in innovation, science and technology should be strengthened, not weakened, regardless of the economic climate. It is new technologies, emerging innovations that will move us forward. The kind of cutting-edge research that the National Research Council has been well known and universally admired for, should be protected and encouraged, not abandoned.

For almost a century the NRC has been celebrated as Canada's premier research facility, specializing in aerospace, biotechnology, engineering and construction, fundamental sciences, information and communications technology and manufacturing. All vital areas of interest to any country with pride in its scientific capabilities, its facilities and its vision.

Cutting back on our commitments to scientific innovation and research may spell a monetary relief in the budget in the short term, but it presents as long-term abandonment of our need to develop and grow the country's innovative capacity.