Looking at the list of signatories to the global petition calling for a break from artificial intelligence, one city keeps coming up: Montreal.
This is no accident, observes Frédéric Bouchard, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at the University of Montreal. “Years ago, talented researchers like Yoshua Bengio worked in their corner. Even if we didn’t know exactly what it was for, we trusted them. »
Mr. Bengio is now a world authority on deep learning. “His talent attracted other talent and Montreal has become an important center of expertise,” summarizes Mr. Bouchard. But the future of research worries him. The opposite phenomenon begins to occur. The best brains go elsewhere, where their work is much better funded.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Frédéric Bouchard, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Montreal
As chair of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Research Support System, Mr. Bouchard tabled a report in January that should set red lights all over Ottawa.
“Canada is not bad,” he adds. We are going forward. But the other countries are running faster and faster. »
A philosopher of science, Mr. Bouchard weighs every word. He is not pessimistic in nature. He speaks with more fascination than indignation. “The world is changing so fast,” he gets carried away. The challenges of our time, such as the climate crisis, cybersecurity or food supply, are complex. They are at the intersection of several disciplines. We are able to meet them! But for this, innovation and research will be essential. What is needed is talent. Many researchers who are given the means to work together. »
That’s the whole problem…
Because Canada has fallen far behind.
“Look at South Korea. As a proportion of their population, they have about 400,000 more researchers than we do. It’s almost the equivalent of the entire city of Laval with scientists at work for their ministries, their universities and their companies! »
Note that the numbers stop in 2020. As a result of the pandemic, the United States, Germany and other countries massively boosted their investments.
The delay grew even more.
After his victory in 2015, Justin Trudeau promised to “listen to science”.
The following year, there was this far-sighted statement.
Prosperity is not just about what’s under our feet, but more importantly what’s between our ears.
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
During his first term, he commissioned a report on research funding from David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto. One of the recommendations: create a science and innovation council. Six years later, the organization remains an empty shell. It exists on paper, but without a budget or president.
The report by the team led by Mr. Bouchard was to follow up on this program reorganization. He was not asked to verify whether the funding was sufficient, but he answered this question anyway.
Scholarships for research students have not increased for 20 years. With inflation, they therefore decrease.
Our public research funding totals approximately $4 billion. For comparison, this sum is equivalent to the recent increase in the budget of the American Institutes of Health. I repeat: all that Canada invests does not exceed the simple annual increase of one of the numerous scientific agencies of our neighbour.
“Americans have not only adopted theInflation Reduction Act, with its billions for green technologies. They also injected a lot of money into the Chips and Science Act [sur les microprocesseurs], in addition to increasing NASA’s budget. »
In short, there is an urgent need to respond.
Money will not be enough. Another problem is the scattering of funds for research. There are three: for the humanities, for health, and for the natural sciences and engineering. Added to this is the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
This discourages interdisciplinarity. For example, a cybersecurity project will be broken into smaller pieces to get funding in each research fund.
For international collaborations, it is also tedious. “Scientists who want to work with us don’t know which door to knock on,” reports Mr. Bouchard.
Finally, his report deplores the fact that Canada does not have a specific strategy to target certain issues. The many sector strategies overlap in disorder.
In summary: it lacks money, vision and coordination.
Experts have been saying it for years: with an aging population, Canada’s prosperity will depend on innovation and productivity. While the other major powers are developing a clear vision, Canada is reacting. It sprinkles money all over the place, like in the highly dubious carbon capture and storage technology to appease the oil and gas lobby.
Mr. Bouchard’s team worked quickly to submit its report at the start of winter, in order to give the government time to take it into account in its budget. Wasted effort.
The Liberals only promise to “review” the recommendations. An announcement could come “over the next few months,” it read. This is also what the Liberals ensured at the start of their mandate…
While their rivals switch gears, Canada seems very happy to continue its scooter ride.