On april 8th 2017, Frédéric Bouchard, president of l’Association francophone pour le savoir (Acfas) gave an interview to Le Devoir newspaper on the major differences between funds allocated to research in both Quebec and Canada’s annual budgets.

While Quebec’s budget was met with relief by M. Bouchard, Canada’s budget was a source of concerns. Such responses were motivated by the fact that Quebec’s new budget contains additional funds for funding bodies and also a major investment in artificial intelligence in Montreal. On the contrary, Canada’s 2017 budget contains no such additional money for research Councils and only makes small targeted investments.

Frédéric Bouchard is worried of potential dire consequences that this lack of concret actions could have on the vitality of advanced research, and on the place of Canada on the world stage as a leader in scientific production.

Excerpts:

Au moment où notre société essaye de transformer nos manières de faire pour moins dépendre des ressources naturelles, l’éducation et la recherche sont cruciales.

 

L’absence de réinvestissement maintenant va avoir des conséquences sur des laboratoires partout au pays, […]. Des étudiants ne seront pas embauchés, des laboratoires seront forcés de fermer.

 

Comparativement aux pays de l’OCDE, cela fait dix ans que le Canada recule en recherche et développement, alors qu’en Corée du Sud, en Israël, en Europe, on voit une progression des fonds. Ce sont nos concurrents !

 

Read article in Le Devoir newspaper