Canada and China: Collaborating in Science and Research

Speaking Points

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, PC, MP
Minister of State (Science and Technology)

Canada–China Academic Forum

Telus Centre, University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
August 26, 2010

Check Against Delivery

Thank you very much, Brian. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

I am pleased to take part in this important gathering aimed at improving the overall quality of graduate education and at making research more relevant to the knowledge economy. I am honoured to speak before an audience of unquestionable talent and international scope.

You have come together to discuss how to innovate and to improve the ways our two countries create opportunities for promising students and researchers. At the heart of the matter is a principle all of us acknowledge: science drives commerce. This is true for both of our countries.

In joining the discussion, I want to talk about the importance the Canadian government places on research and development (R&D). Our country is a home for world-class research.

But it also welcomes foreign investment, with one of the most favourable tax systems anywhere. And it has an unquestionable ability to bring together the efforts of scientists and business people.

As you know, much R&D involves people working together across borders.

So, in addition to telling you about Canada's many strengths as a home of science and technology (S&T), I want to devote most of my remarks today to the many ways that Canada and China have cooperated in the past and must continue to cooperate in the future.

I see such collaboration as essential. Canada and China will both need more people with graduate degrees in the sciences and engineering to replace retiring workers and to meet a stronger demand for skills in the realm of S&T.

Now we must ensure, as never before, that graduate education realizes its utmost potential. In order to help fuel economic growth, our future graduates will need to better understand the challenges we will face in the economy of tomorrow.

Let me begin with a review of the steps the Government of Canada has taken to create an environment that encourages innovation, technology transfer and groundbreaking R&D.

In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched Canada's Science and Technology Strategy, which set out to respond to the challenges the country was facing.

The strategy was meant to encourage stronger private sector commitment to S&T, build on Canada's research strengths, and attract and retain highly skilled people.

In line with the strategy, federal spending on S&T increased every year after 2006.

When the global recession hit Canada, our government introduced Canada's Economic Action Plan. Instead of cutting back on R&D, our government used this opportunity to invest more — about an additional $6.3 billion in S&T in the last two years.

Our government's investment in S&T is expected to reach a record $10.7 billion in the 2009–10 fiscal year.

Compared with other countries, Canada is very supportive of cutting-edge research. Our country ranks first in the G7 for R&D performed in the higher education sector as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).

The federal government has established three major programs to position Canada as a hub for international-calibre research.

The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships support world-class doctoral students who demonstrate a high standard of scholarly achievement in their graduate studies and outstanding leadership skills.

The highly prestigious Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program is meant to attract world-class researchers to Canadian universities to work in priority research areas and to lead cutting-edge research teams.

And only last week, my colleague, Edmonton Member of Parliament Mike Lake, was here to announce the launch of applications for the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program, which we hope will become one of the most sought-after fellowships in the world.

Not only will they place some of the world's best researchers in highly supportive environments, the Banting Fellowships will help those researchers establish worldwide networks of collaboration early in their careers.

In addition to these programs, our country also has a long-standing and highly successful Canada Research Chairs program, which invests $300 million per year to attract and retain some of the world's most accomplished and promising minds. And in this program, we have many examples of researchers who are working in Canada and have maintained close professional relationships with China.

For example, at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Dr. Yuezhi Zhao holds the Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Global Communication. As one of the world's leading scholars on communication industries and policies in China, her research involves analyzing the evolution of Chinese media, telecommunications and Internet policies in the context of China's global integration.

And at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Zhi-Chun Jing holds the Canada Research Chair in Asia–Pacific Archaeology. His research involves the regional survey and excavation of sites in China's former Shang state to determine the settlement patterns and structural changes in one of China's most historically important regions.

Also at the University of British Columbia is the Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Weihong Song. Since his years as a physician in China, Dr. Song has specialized in the genetics of mental disorders, and his research promises a better understanding of the molecular basis of Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis.

These are just a few of the many examples of China–Canada research collaboration. I hope by now you have an idea about Canada's interest in superior S&T and about our desire to build a community of world-calibre researchers.

In business as well, Canada is at home on the international stage. Newly introduced reductions to our business tax system mean that Canada will have the lowest overall tax rate on new business investment in the G7 this year.

And thanks to measures our government took as part of Canada's Economic Action Plan, Canada is on track to have the lowest statutory corporate income tax rate in the G7 by 2012. In two years, our country will have an overall tax rate on new business investment that is lower than the average of the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

So, why do people invest in Canada? Because financial investment here can be lucrative. But it is also safe.

Canada was better prepared than many countries to face the global economic slowdown. The ratio of government net debt to GDP is the lowest in the G7. A stable economy with low government debt and low inflation offers investors security.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Canada will lead the G7 in real economic growth from 2009 to 2013 and is slated to be the best place in the G7 to do business over that period. The World Economic Forum said last year there was no sounder banking system than Canada's.

As proud as we are of the country we have built and of the investments the government has made in Canada's future, that's not my main goal in speaking to you today. I want to talk about the combined potential of Canada and China to further their goals in S&T.

Before I launch into a discussion about our countries working together in the fields of graduate education and research, let me take a moment to acknowledge the varied and intricate history of the Canada–China partnership. It had its formal beginnings, as you all know, when Ottawa and Beijing opened diplomatic relations 40 years ago this fall.

In 1970, Canada first recognized the People's Republic of China. In fact, it was a step credited with breaking a logjam among Western nations. Many followed in Canada's footsteps in ensuing years.

The dawn of the modern Canada–China relationship set the stage for greater collaboration throughout our societies that continues to this day. In the realm of S&T, there are a number of bilateral initiatives in place to help graduate researchers do their work and to align it with the needs of societies around the world.

Our two governments signed the Canada–China Science and Technology Agreement in January 2007. They set up a joint committee to oversee bilateral S&T activities between our two countries, with representatives from academia, government and private industry.

The President of the University of British Columbia, Dr. Stephen Toope — who I believe is present with us today — is Canada's academic representative on the joint S&T Committee.

The Canada–China S&T agreement laid out several areas of collaboration: health and life sciences, energy and environment, agriculture and bio-products, and information and communications technologies. Canada hosted the joint committee's third meeting this past June at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Amid a full agenda, committee members added civil aviation to the list of areas of R&D in which they could collaborate, an acknowledgment of China's rapidly growing aviation industry. They also agreed on many new activities under the S&T agreement's existing framework.

With the International Science and Technology Partnerships Program (ISTPP), Canada and China have further demonstrated their ability to work together.

These bilateral partnerships will accelerate the application of new technologies in life sciences, information and communication technology, and renewable energy. The overall joint investment for the program is $3.7 million.

Let me show you how the ISTPP involves Canada and China. One project will apply advanced breeding technologies to the Chinese dairy industry.

It is a project that is being conducted by China Agricultural University in Beijing along with Alta Genetics of Calgary. They are working on improving the processes for the genetic evaluation of dairy cattle. It is hoped that their work will make it possible to identify superior breeding stock. And given that milk consumption in China is increasing by more than 15 percent a year, I'm sure we can all see that this is much-needed undertaking!

Another project under the ISTPP involves the race to develop potent drugs to suppress symptoms of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The market for such drugs is estimated to be $10 billion, and I am proud to say Canadian researchers have proved their strengths as developers of these products.

Dr. Mark Wainberg, director of the McGill University AIDS Centre at the Montréal Jewish General Hospital, is working with scientists at Beijing's Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology to advance HIV research and antiretroviral drug discovery.

The list of Canadian–Chinese S&T collaborations actually extends beyond national governments.

For example, the Province of Alberta has signed S&T agreements with China in the areas of life sciences, energy and environmental technologies, advanced materials and high-tech agriculture. The University of Alberta has its own agreement on cooperation in several areas, such as nanotechnology.

Overall Canada–China cooperation is vast and varied. In trade and investment, there is no question that China is vital to Canadian prosperity. The two countries also share a common concern for environmentally sound economic development, such as investment in clean technology and energy efficiency.

In March 2010, for example, a Canada–China panel was held at the GLOBE 2010 environmental business conference in Vancouver. About 200 delegates attended, including more than 70 from China.

They explored scientific and technological solutions for urban water and air pollution issues facing both countries and discussed opportunities for R&D partnerships.

Canada–China relations in tourism received a boost recently following the official signing of the Approved Destination Status agreement in Canada this past June, following Prime Minister Stephen Harper's successful visit to China last December.

Approved Destination Status with China will allow the tourism industry here to actively market Canadian tourism in China, one of the fastest growing outbound tourism markets.

We here in this room, however, are particularly interested in the links Canada and China have established in education.

Thousands of people from one country have furthered their knowledge through the other from year to year. In 2009, about 200 000 students from around the world came to Canada to study. About 50 000 of them came here from China alone.

That means close to one in four international students in Canada today is Chinese. The number is growing substantially from year to year — Canada issued 36 percent more student visas to Chinese applicants in 2008 than it had in 2007.

From 2008 to 2009 that figure jumped again, this time by 20 percent to a total of 16 700 visas. The number of PhD students from China increased from 295 in 2008 to 395 in 2009 — a 25-percent increase that is part of a trend we expect to continue.

As we go forward, the opportunities for cooperation between Canada and China are many. The successes of Canadian educational institutions in China are evident in the many high school curricula and post-secondary programs being offered in Chinese provinces. There are more than 40 separate Canadian Studies centres and programs at Chinese universities.

This demonstrates beyond any doubt that the large community of scholars in our two countries is a valuable asset indeed. We must continue to work together to increase our academic exchanges, strengthen our many ties and remain fixed on addressing the needs of the 21st century.

Thank you.