- CAP submits brief to House of Commons Finance Committee (FINA) re 2024 Federal Budget
- Contact your MP! – register your support for the CAP recommendations
- Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System
CAP Submits brief to House of Commons Finance Committee (FINA) re 2024 Federal Budget
As every year, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance has invited Canadians to participate in the planning of the 2024 Federal Budget.
CAP Past-President, Barbara Frisken, in collaboration with the CAP’s Science Policy Committee and input from our institutional partners, sister societies, our Student Advisory Council, and the Support our Science student-led group, prepared a strong submission with the following three recommendations:
Recommendation #1: That the government significantly increase investment in the Tri-Council agencies by increasing funding to the councils’ total base budgets for their core grant programming by at least 10% annually for five years to allow them to increase support for trainees.
Recommendation #2: That the government increase funding for graduate student scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships to address inflation, cost of living increases, and population growth, and to help keep our HQP in Canada
Recommendation #3: That the government implement a more strategic approach to management of major research facilities (MRFs), taking a lifecycle approach to funding to improve effectiveness in recognition of their role as national assets that support Canada’s scientific enterprise.
Prior to submission of our brief on August 4, 2023, the CAP brief was endorsed by:
- Canadian Light Source (CLS)
- Perimeter Institute
- SNOLAB
- TRIUMF
- Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP)
- Biophysical Society of Canada (BSC)
Click here to view a copy of the CAP’s full brief.
Copies of previous briefs and science policy news items can be found on the CAP’s science policy webpage.
If you wish to contact the Science Policy Committee, please contact the CAP’s Director of Science Policy, Eric Donovan, via the CAP office.
Contact your MP!
Within the next few weeks, we will be asking members to write directly to their MP – before the middle of October – to further strengthen the push for adoption of the recommendations in the CAP brief as outlined above. The call for action will include a draft letter that you could use, in whole or part.
For members who would like to act now, you can find the contact information for your MP by entering your postal code in this online Parliament of Canada members page, clicking on the name of your MP, and then the contact tab.
Momentum is building, and prior to mid-October is the time to press for implementation of the CAP’s recommendations as outlined in the news item above. Please add your voice.
Learn More: Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System
As previously reported, the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System was established in the Fall of 2022 to review the structure and governance of research support, with particular focus on the relationships among the federal research granting agencies (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Read more about the panel’s mandate and members.
The CAP FINA brief referred to in the news item above references several recommendations that were put forward by this Advisory Panel.
Click here to see the full Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System that was released by the Government on March 20, 2023.