For most people, research is probably not a high priority.
For students, research is looking on the Internet or in textbooks for obscure pieces of information that they can include in an essay or report.
For the average Canadian consumer, research amounts to comparing different models and makes to ensure the best value for money or the most economical purchase.
For business, research is a necessary although costly and sometimes fruitless expense that must be included in the cost of doing business.
But for an academic, research is about the discovery and creation of new knowledge. About finding new ways to understand or discovering compounds and species never before seen. It is at the heart of what we do.
For Prime Minister Harper and the federal Conservatives, research is evil.
Or, at least, that is the way it would appear to be judging by their various policy initiatives and funding choices over the past few years.
It started with scientists at various government laboratories being muzzled. They were told that they could not speak directly to the press. Officially, they must have all of their comments vetted by the Minister before they can be released.
Surely Ministers of the government have more important things to do than monitor the statement of wildlife biologists in northern B.C. about the Grizzly Bear population but apparently not.
Next came the de-funding of programs that supported research. The Experimental Lakes Area comes to mind.
This is not a high profile research project unless you happen to be interested in the environment, in lake chemistry, in fish populations, and in long term studies about the effects of numerous factors on the sustainability of ecosystems.
But for researchers that are trying to understand sustainable ecosystems and the role lakes will play in the future, the Experimental Lakes Area is a unique and valuable research site. It is 58 small and medium size lakes within a restricted watershed that was being managed cooperatively by the governments of Canada and Ontario since 1967.
It is the only site in the world with such a rich longitudinal database of experimental observations and physical characterization. Shutting down the research is tantamount to giving up on understanding aquatic ecosystems.
The irony is that the cost of the Experimental Lakes Area annually is less than some of the weekend junkets that Mr. Harper hosts or attends. It is a tiny fraction of the money that the Prime Minister spent on the 2010 G8 summit that produced no results.
The most recent indication that the Mr. Harper and the Conservatives have lost their way with regard to research is the re-focusing of the National Research Council (NRC) laboratories to problem solving for industry.
Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear thinks that the government is on the right track in its efforts to push for a stronger relationship between academic research and industry, including changing the direction of the NRC.
However, it is all smoke and mirrors as it is simply the reshuffling of money without actually contributing to the total overall research enterprise. As a consequence, Canada continues to fall further and further behind.
Indeed, we have slipped to 23rd from 16th in the world in our overall expenditures on research and development relative to GDP. Yes, we are below Estonia and right in there with Ireland and Norway.
Our expenditures on research have remained essentially flat for the past 6 years. More to the point, they are predicted to remain flat for the foreseeable future which will ensure that we fall further down the list.
Does this matter? Economically, yes.
Analysis of Labour Productivity shows that Canada is falling further and further behind the rest of the developed world. We are now 28th, behind countries such as Greece and Spain despite their recent economic woes.
Simply put, our economy is not performing anywhere close to the way it should if we want to maintain our present lifestyle.
Or, as one of my colleagues put it, "Canada is a third-world country which, due to its natural resources, is living a first-world lifestyle."
Canada started as an exporter of goods - pelts and fish - to Europe. We are now exporting wood and oil. And, if the present government has its way, our future will be tied to the export of ores and oil along with liquefied natural gas in British Columbia.
Ironically, the equipment needed to exploit these resources wasn't developed in Canada. We are just a warehouse where the rest of the world comes for supplies.
In the end, our economy will rise and fall with commodity prices. Our domestic economic policies will be driven by external factors. And when we eventually run out of resources, we will cease to be a first-world country.
If we don't want that to be our future, then we need to do the research right now.
