Medical research gets funding
PQ backtracks on cuts, places blame on Liberals
QUEBEC — The Parti Québécois government has defused a campaign mounted by 18 medical research centres by giving the centres 80 per cent of the research funds they were seeking.
The centres banded together after learning in December that the government would not continue research grants worth $63 million.
Of that total, $10 million was for research projects at the 18 medical research centres.
They launched an advertising campaign under the banner Je suis Michèle, with a website, Twitter and Facebook links.
In a video, Michèle, a 52-year old woman with ovarian cancer, says she has a 20 per cent chance of surviving her cancer, but has benefited from research. Also in the video, Liala, a 26-year-old doctoral student, explains that the research money pays 85 per cent of her bursary.
Wednesday, Higher Education Minister Pierre Duchesne and Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet announced they had found $26.5 million for research — $6.5 million for studies on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, plus $20 million for other research projects, including $8 million for medical research.
Duchesne explained the previous Liberal government had not set aside additional research money after March 31, the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year.
Pierre Reid, Liberal research and innovation critic, said the PQ has cut funding and insisted the Liberals would have continued paying the research grants.
Duchesne said the concession showed the government “listened to the concerns of the research milieu,” but that it was difficult to find the money, saying the outgoing Liberals left public finances in shambles.
Serge Rivest, research director at the Université Laval teaching hospital and spokesman for the research centres, said he is relieved the government came up with $8 million, meaning the centres will face only a $2-million shortfall.
He said initially Duchesne did not realize how important the money was, saying it was “just $10 million.”
“For us, $10 million is enormous,” Rivest said, explaining grants from the province can generate additional funding of $50 million or $60 million by attracting grants from the private sector, the federal government and sources outside Canada.
“You can’t stop a research project overnight,” he added, saying the cuts could have a direct impact on health.
“It takes years to recover. We lose students, research staff, who work in our laboratories.”
The PQ government had said it is committed to increasing research funding to three per cent of gross domestic product, offering incentives to encourage private investment — on top of government funding.
Rivest said the research centres are encouraged by that commitment, but needed a bridge between the end of current funding on March 31 and the start of the new PQ program.