Tory science antipathy makes front page, critics told to shut up
Today’s Globe and Mail features an interesting long feature by Carolyn Abraham on the state of relations between the Conservative government and academic researchers across the country. The piece captures the apprehension felt by scientists across the country, who feel that the Conservatives approach to research funding will result in decreased research budgets and increased brain-drain across our borders. She contrasts the $10-billion (US) increase for basic research announced by the Obama administration in the United States with the $148-million cut to research budgets here over the next three years. Several prominent researchers are featured, including Drs. Charlie Boone at UofT, Gordon Keller at UofT, and Andrew Weaver at UVictoria, who suggest that the strategy of upgrading facilities while withdrawing the funds needed to run them is misguided. It is suggested that the world-renowned and highly productive lab Dr. Boone runs in conjunction with Dr. Brenda Andrews will run out of money in December. The ever-present spectre of leaving Canada for greener funding pastures is also raised.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the heads of the government funding agencies, NSERC president Suzanne Fortier, CIHR president Alain Beaudet, and NCE director Jean-Claude Gravel are nominally supportive of the government’s actions. The point out that some governments, including Japan’s, direct basic research funding to economic prioirites even more than Canada’s Conservatives. Somewhat chillingly, though, CFI President and CEO Eliot Phillipson explained that $600-million of the $750-million in new funding they’ll be disbursing will back competitions in which “there’s going to be a little more direction” from Ottawa. Other heads of agencies damn the government with faint praise, basically blaming the economic downturn for the cuts and suggesting the government has to make tough fiscal decisions, despite spending increases across the rest of the budget.
Most interesting was the characterization of the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology. He suggested that his consultations with university presidents and research deans, as well as researchers themselves, have been positive. “You’re going to see that one person who didn’t get what they wanted… [but] eight out of 10 folks I talk to get it”, the story quotes him as saying. Perhaps the one person who didn’t get it is represented by the two officials from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Apparently, Mr. Goodyear raised his voice, pointed his finger at them, and accused them of lying to their members and misleading them about how great his budget cuts are. Both sides agreed that the meeting was the worst they had ever had, perhaps reaching a high point when the minister’s assistant “screamed” at the CAUT members to shut up, before the assistant and the minister stormed out.
Brilliant.
