UNFORTUNATE TIMING FOR NRC CHANGES

Todays Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Ottawa tells research council to move away from basic science". The timing is unfortunate for our federal government in that recently they have been on the receiving end of criticism suggesting that they are anti science. Whether they are or not this announcement will certainly be received differently by business than it will by the scientific community. Science, research and knowledge are all intrinsically valuable in their own right. Often discoveries today don't lead to applications for many years. I think of it as demanding that a creative fiction writer can only write on matters that are currently relevant. Or that anyone involved in creative thought and work must work to somebody else's schedule. It just seems like such a bad idea.

Neverthelss our federal government as well as our minister of state for science and technology believes it is better for Canada in the long run. Obviously the opposition parties are also not much impressed with this recent announcement.