Replies

• 1

  Eva Amsen

  29 January 2009 | 20:40

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  I’m hopeful that they “just forgot”. It’s too weird that there was no advance warning (and it wouldn’t have gone straight to 0 in a deliberate cut, would it?)

• 2

  Richard Wintle

  29 January 2009 | 20:46

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  Nice blog post from T. Ryan Gregory right here.

  Let’s hope Marc Garneau can rattle some cages in Question Period today. This is, if I may say so in polite company, $%(%ing awful.

  Looks to me like the answer to your question is “yes” – Genome Canada could get no funding this year.

• 3

  Eva Amsen

  29 January 2009 | 20:49

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  Your place of employment is directly affected, too, isn’t it?

• 4

  Richard Wintle

  29 January 2009 | 21:09

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  Yup. The Platform competition (which funds us) is going ahead as planned. However, if there are no (or few) projects funded over the next few years, that will definitely cause us problems (projects use platforms for research services).

  I have emailed my MP. I have no illusions that this will be in any way helpful, however.

• 5

  Cath Ennis

  30 January 2009 | 01:03

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  I know lots of people whose jobs are now looking less than safe… nice one Mr Harper and your “economic stimulus / job security” budget.

• 6

  Corie Lok

  30 January 2009 | 15:00

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  Here’s the government’s latest response (according to this Globe and Mail article), which I have a hard time swallowing.

  The government’s view is that it gave Genome Canada $100-million in 2007 and $140-million in 2008. Minister of Science and Technology Gary Goodyear insisted in Question Period yesterday that both of those sums were to be rolled out over five years and that the money should last the organization until 2013.

  Could this result in a brain drain, now that science-friendly Obama is in power? I wonder if Obama can sway Harper in any way. Obama’s visit is coming up soon. Hmm.

• 7

  Cathy Bogaart

  12 February 2009 | 20:03

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  MaRS also got no funding, which helps people DO stuff with their research. However, it doesn’t change anything for us as we were operating under the assumption that we were getting nothing, thankfully!

  However, there were some pretty clear messages that the feds don’t “GET” how important sci/tech is to alleviate this recession. Strange choice considering how many are touting “innovation” as the cure! We posted a couple of blogs on the Fed Budget that speak to the lack of funding for Sci/Tech:

  • Budget S&T draws mixed reviews By Jeff Sharom on the research community’s reaction.

  • A chicken in every pot? You decide By Linda Quattrin on the highlights for entrepreneurs in general, including $ for clean energy and IRAP.

  • See also BIOTECanada’s budget position

  The whole thing brings to mind something Linda Q wrote about regarding the Martin Prosperity Institute’s report, Ontario in the Creative Age :

  “As human animals we have the amazing capacity to not only conceive of but re-imagine a place and time we call ‘the future’. As political animals, we all scrounge and compete for attention and resources in a messy place called ‘the present’.

  This … complicates the landscape for those whose political lives exist in the messy present. Let’s hope we have the fortitude — and the creativity that the times demand of us — to find that new path forward."

• 8

  Richard Wintle

  13 February 2009 | 15:05

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  Hey look, there’s Cathy! ;)

  Genome Canada is having a Board meeting this morning (started about two minutes ago). I suspect that this will crystallize their strategy and plans going forward, and how they will handle their current funding commitments (to Competition III and “ABC” projects, as well as Platforms) and what they will or will not be able to do for new initiatives (i.e. the joint Canada-Italy competition, and the position papers in Child Health and Animal and Fish genomics).