One week to shape the future of Canadian science! | Unpublished
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Unpublished Opinions

Katie Gibbs's picture
Ottawa, Ontario
About the author

I'm a scientist, environmentalist, pragmatic policy wonk and vegan food blogger.

In the summer of 2012 I was one of the lead organizers of the Death of Evidence rally and am currently the Executive Director of Evidence for Democracy — a new organization that advocates for the transparent use of evidence in government decision making and public policy development.

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One week to shape the future of Canadian science!

January 31, 2014

Dear Canadians,

The federal government is asking Canadians to share their thoughts on how to strengthen science, technology and innovation in Canada to inform the upcoming revised science strategy and future science policies.

Evidence for Democracy has prepared some recommendations to help restore public-interest science and evidence-based policy development in Canada.

This is a chance for you to have to your say! Add your voice to the new science and technology strategy.

The existing strategy only focuses on science and innovation related to business. It completely ignores all the other science that is necessary for the long-term well-being and prosperity of Canadians. Federal government science capacity is crucial for the support of evidence-informed public policy.

The current strategy is also entirely silent about federal support for basic research. Amazingly, supporting basic research is not identified as a priority for Canadian science.  Yet such research lies at the heart of all innovation.  No basic research, no innovation: it’s that simple.

We’ve made it very easy for you to participate. We've written a draft response and created a tool on our website for you to submit a response in seconds: https://evidencefordemocracy.ca/st

Comments must be submitted by February 7th! So please add your voice today and share with your networks.

Thank you!

Katie Gibbs
Executive Director

P.S. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition to save our science libraries! Thousands of Canadians have already signed and Rick Mercer did a skit about the library closures this week.