The Manitoba Health Research Council is in need of attention and much better funding

Monday December 4: I raised concerns about the Manitoba Health Research Council (MHRC) in question period in the Manitoba Legislature. The following is from Hansard. It is worth noting that I have raised concerns quite a number of times in the Manitoba Legislature about the MHRC - over the last several years - but so far the NDP have not listened. But it is important to keep up efforts to get more attention to the MHRC and to very substantially improve its funding.

Manitoba Health Research Council - Government Support

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, a good health care system requires proper investment in health research as a cornerstone for improvement. The Manitoba Health Research Council is the lead agency of the provincial government in supporting health research in our province.

For seven years now, I've been calling on this government to pay attention to health research, and for seven years, this government has done astonishingly little to support the MHRC. In fact, provincial funding to the MHRC today is the same as it was in 1989. Adjusting for 17 years of inflation, the MHRC has essentially lost 30 percent of its real funding. Indeed, if the amount was adjusted for inflation and the proportion of the health care budget, it would now be some 4.7 million, not 1.9 million.

I ask the minister: Why has the NDP government paid so little attention to the Manitoba Health Research Council?

Hon. Jim Rondeau (Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mines): Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased that the government is doing things with this. I met with the council, they just presented me with a report. I've accepted the report and we're moving on it.
A couple of years ago we increased it by $200,000 [Note this increase only returned MHRC funding to 1989 levels). We're increasing our concern on the fund and we're working together with the research industry; not only to broaden and expand it; not only to get more co-operation; not only to encompass not just government but private-sector foundations, research organizations, universities, to create an overall scope, an overall plan to move research forward.
I don't think it's one pillar. It's a number of groups working together to enhance the research, because together we may do $30-million worth of research, but there's about $140 million of research in the province a year. I think what we have to do is work together, co-operate and then get more bang for our buck.

Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, as a direct result of this government's failure to properly support the MHRC, Manitoba is slipping ominously in health research support. Let's compare this government's record with Saskatchewan. Here's a shocker. The funds this government provides to the MHRC are just one-third of what the Saskatchewan government gives to the Saskatchewan Health Research Council. If this government would have kept up with Saskatchewan, it would be investing $6 million annually in the MHRC. As a result of this government's seven years of neglect, while the number of national CIHR grants accepted for Saskatchewan researchers has gone up 5 percent a year, in Manitoba, the number of grants accepted has decreased by one percent a year. Terrible.

Can the minister explain to us why this government cannot even keep up with Saskatchewan in funding the Manitoba Health Research Council, our health research council?

Mr. Rondeau: To correct the member, in the year 2004-2005, the Province directly spent $26.9 million on R&D. That's up 62 percent from 1999. In the Budget 2005, we boosted R&D tax credit by 33 percent to encourage R&D in the private sector, and what we want to do is we want to grow the industry.

Just for the information for the members opposite, Manitoba is home to 41 new companies. That's a growth of 10 percent in two years. We're one of the fastest-growing life sciences sectors in the country, if not North America, and we're growing at a rate higher than average.

So what we're doing, Mr. Speaker, is we're working, not just with government, we're working with government, universities and private sector to expand the whole industry. It's not just a government responsibility. What we believe we can do is work with others, co-operate with others and then win–