Canada’s public service has some of the world’s best scientists. And they can give us the solutions to the challenges that we face on critical issues such as climate change, food safety, water quality and disease prevention. But they need the resources to do the job.
We need to elect a government that will base its decisions on scientific evidence. Canada needs more, not less, federal government science.
We can’t depend on the private sector for solutions. Only Canada’s own public service scientists can deliver the innovations needed to tackle these problems. While the past four years have seen some replenishing of the ranks of federal researchers, much more needs to be done. We expect the government to spend $122 million less on government science and technology in 2018-19 than it did in 2012-13. Research and development spending is projected to decline by $455 million over the same period. That’s not acceptable.
In this election, we are calling on federal political parties to commit to:
- Invest $78 million immediately into research and development at Environment and Climate Change Canada and review internal science funding in other departments
- Task the Chief Science Advisor with developing detailed metrics to better monitor federal science capacity in the future
- Protect and promote scientific integrity – we cannot go back to the days of muzzling our federal public scientists
Learn more about our priorities for public science.
We surveyed the four federal parties running candidates across the country to find out where they stand on public science:
- The Green Party of Canada did not respond to this question.
- The Liberal Party of Canada: Supports the work of the Chief Science Advisor but makes no specific future funding commitment.
- The New Democratic Party of Canada: Sees an expanded role for the Chief Science Advisor and will create the new position of Parliamentary Science Officer. They will invest in federal science but makes no specific future funding commitment.
- The Conservative Party of Canada did not answer the survey.
With one click, you can email your local candidates to find out where they stand on public science.
Email your local candidates
On October 21, use your vote to support public science.
Want to know where these federal parties stand on other issues of importance to PIPSC members?