Feds say ‘war on science’ over with $554-M infusion

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This article was published 19/10/2017 (2379 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal government recently announced more than $550 million for Canadian research labs, including a Winnipeg project aimed at fighting cancer through microscopic particles.

“Scientists need to have the best labs and tools if they’re going to make discoveries that will pave the way to a brighter future,” Science Minister Kirsty Duncan wrote shortly after an Oct. 12 visit to the University of Manitoba.

She highlighted a mechanical engineer’s quest to use cutting-edge technology to cure patients.

Malcolm Xing, an associate professor, will use 3D printers to create synthetic materials that could be used with skin grafts to fix diabetic food ulcers — an issue First Nations communities in Manitoba have recently highlighted as a priority.

Xing is also developing drug-carrying nanoparticles that might be able to fight tumorous cells without damaging healthy ones.

Duncan said the Canada Foundation for Innovation would spend $554 million on 117 new projects at 61 universities, colleges and research hospitals nationwide.

Duncan said the money aims to improve Canadians’ lives while boosting the economy. She said the funding “gives scientists and their students in Winnipeg, and across the country, the opportunity to further their research in areas where Canada has a competitive advantage.”

Of the funding, $1.2 million will be used to upgrade Xing’s equipment, and help three other projects in which U of M researchers will collaborate with teams in Ontario and Nova Scotia: an ocean seismic-imaging centre, a data project that computes economic outcomes of immigrants and refugees, and an astronomy database that calculates findings from multiple labs.

Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid was at the announcement, and told the Free Press the money would affect more than just his riding.

“It highlights the research coming out of the province,” said Duguid, who contrasted it to his federal Conservative predecessors, who defunded the Experimental Lakes Area near Kenora, Ont. “Frankly, there was a war on science.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca