Millions of public dollars funding research benefitting corporations while cutting "public good" research
September 5, 2013 - By Kate Webb - Metro
Should the feds fund research on how bitumen behaves at sea? (POLL)
Bill Pugliano/Getty ImagesEnbridge is still in the process of cleaning up bitumen that spilled in the Kalamazoo River, pictured here in 2010, but little scientific research has been done about how extra heavy crude behaves in saltwater.
The debate continued to rage on Thursday about whether the federal government should spend millions of public dollars on measures Green Party leaders charge are "greasing the wheels" for Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
Leaked documents show the feds plan to spend $6.8 million over the next three years - not the $78 million initially reported on Wednesday - on developing the first ever computer models to predict how diluted bitumen would behave if spilled in the ocean.
Adam Holbrook, associate director of the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology at SFU, said the Greens are right to say public funds are being allocated for private purposes, but that's nothing new.
Related:
- Greens say taxpayers supporting pipeline bid
- Charges follow courtroom outburst by pipeline protesters
- Enbridge almost back to normal after protests in Westover
"Yes, it's true, but also, government does this all the time, and not just for the natural resources industries," he said.
"It does it for manufacturing, it does it for services industries. There are a number of different programs, but it's grease."
He argued it is in the public interest for Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Natural Resources Canada to carry out the research, because if Enbridge did it the company would own it and no one else would have access to it.
Holbrook noted it is common practice for governments to fund "pre-competitive research" and then leave it to industries to pay for follow-up research from which they might profit.
In Enbridge's case, that could mean using the government's data on bitumen behaviour to develop innovative spill mitigation and cleanup techniques.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May clarified that Wednesday's headlines misconstrued her primary concern, which is that more than $120 million has been earmarked for studies and infrastructure for the Douglas Channel at a time when so much other scientific research funding is being cut.
She repeated her assertion that the millions being spent on improving weather forecasts to aid oil tanker navigation is "jumping the gun" on a project that has yet to be approved by the National Energy Board, and is opposed by the B.C. government.
A timeline of greased wheels
The federal government has a long history of spending public money to benefit the private sector:
- The National Research Council (NRC) and Industry Canada have been funding aerospace research since the Second World War that primarily benefits one Canadian company, Bombardier
- The NRC and Agriculture Canada fund a research station at the University of Saskatchewan that studies plant genetics - research heavily relied on by Monsanto
- The Triumf subatomic physics lab at UBC made breakthroughs in cancer-detecting medical isotopes that lead health science company Nordion to develop a profitable line of isotope-generating machines for hospitals
- The NRC has funded oilsands extraction research for decades
- Since 2001 the federal government has funneled tens of millions of dollars into AUTO21, a research and development initiative to find ways to help Canada's ailing auto industry