IS OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ANTI-SCIENCE ?

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Scientists question closing of lakes facility". The appearance is certainly being given that the federal Conservative government does not want good science to interfere with bad politcs. Trent University have a fully funded research project underway that started in the Experimental Lakes Area in nothwestern Ontario last summer. Their funding comes from the prestigious and well known NSERC otherwise known as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Cost cutting may well be a legitimate reason for governments cutting back on services but as biologist Maggie Xenopoulos stated "This decision is totally unecessary. We have our own research funding. I don't know what they are thinking.".

My thinking on this matter is that something is seriously amiss. Our governments at all levels have long claimed that education and research are the keys for a high tech Canadian economy to grow. Meanwhile these research projects don't just employ established Profs they also employ Masters and PhD. students who are working their way through school. Why abort a project underway that is already funded?