A contingent of approximately 20 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty from Trent University took to the streets on May 1st as part of a nationwide walkout planned by the grassroots organization Support Our Science.

The event was locally organized by Sandra Klemet-N’guessan and Maegwin Bonar, both Trent Ph.D. Candidates. Trent University’s Graduate Student Association (TGSA) did not provide comment in time for publication and were not involved in the planning of the walkout. The Trent Central Student Association were reportedly also contacted though none of their directors or executive were in attendance.  

Participants gathered at Sadleir House to make signs and write postcards to Peterborough-Kawartha MP Michelle Ferreri outlining their reasons for calling on the federal government to increase funding for graduate students and postdocs across Canada. From there, the community members walked to Catharine Parr Traill College before gathering in front of Ferreri’s office.

Ferreri did not make an appearance during the event, however, late last week she told the Examiner that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “inflationary spending and increased taxes” were to blame for making it more difficult for individuals and families to afford to live.

The action on May 1st was an attempt to call attention to the stagnating federal stipend which funds Canadian graduate students and postdocs. Over the past 20 years, enrollment in Canadian graduate programs has doubled while the value of federal grants awarded through competitions have remained the same over that time period.

“Support Our Science was founded out of a need to increase funding for graduate students in post pencil. This began with an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister Champagne early last year that was praised by over 7000 scientists and 30 Scientific associations,” Bonar told those assembled outside Ferreri’s office.   

Despite ongoing calls for increased funding, the most recent federal budget, which was announced in on March 28th, did not allow for an increase to the amount of federal funding to be allocated to support the work of Canada’s next generation of scholars, researchers, and educators through the Tri-Council agencies (SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR). 

“We were disappointed to not be included in the budget 2023. And this is why we are walking out today across the nation,” Bonar continued. “I'm a graduate student and Ph. D student at Trent University. I'm also a mother of a three year old and the sole income earner in my household. I have a strong passion for science and my dream is to be a faculty member at a research institution in Canada, but the realities that we face every day, living below the poverty line,  attempting to support a family caused me to question my dream on a regular basis.”  

The decision by the federal government comes despite the publication earlier this year of the Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System, commonly referred to as the “Bouchard Report” after Frédéric Bouchard, Chair of the Panel and Dean of Arts and Science at Université de Montréal.

The report suggest that Canada is lagging behind much of the world when it comes to government and business investment in research and development, noting that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) consistently regards Canada as falling behind nations such as Finland and Germany in research intensity as a direct consequence of of the lack of increased investment. 

Support Our Science’s website outlines four main points of contention which arise out of the Bouchard Report. These include calls to increase the value of scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships—which were last increased in 2003—to reflect inflation; a commitment to index scholarships and fellowships to inflation; an increase in the number of graduate and postdoctoral fellowships to reflect the increase in the number of graduate students in Canada during the past two decades, and; a call to increase in the Tri Agency research grant budget by 50 per cent to support higher pay for graduate students and postdocs.

The average grant across the Tri Council Agencies for a Master’s student is between $15,000 –$17,500 per year, and while a Ph.D. student can expect between $20,000–$35,000 a year., Both vary between single year and multi-year funding streams. Federal postdoctoral grants range between $45,000–$50,000.

Most Shirina Begum, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biology at Trent who previously held a research position in South Korea, spoke about the lack of support for researchers globally. 

“When I compare the researcher wages in different countries, it's pretty much unfair everywhere. However, with inflation and living expenses being too high in Canada, it's almost impossible to survive without money. So when I moved from South Korea to Canada, almost across the globe, I didn't have any say settlement funding or relocation allowance, like many other jobs,” she told supporters during her speech. 

Significantly, graduate students must use these funds to pay tuition fees, which amount to an average of over $7,000 across Canada for domestic students. This further contributes to a rising level of precarity for graduate students across Canada, which will have negative effects on both the quantity and quality of research being performed at Canadian universities. This, in turn, has begun to detract from the desirability of Canada as a destination for graduate students and researchers.

Marcus Harvey, Executive Director of the Trent University Faculty Association (TUFA) spoke about the significance of this walkout occurring on May Day—a day recognized globally as one on which to recognize the struggle for labour rights and the historic exploitation of workers around the world.

“Given the international competition for talent Canada is at serious risk of another brain drain without reinvestment,” Harvey warned. 

While federal scholarships and grants are awarded via competition, the reality is that most graduate students are not directly supported by grants they have received themselves, but rather rely on faculty advisors to support their work.    

“Faculty work relies to a significant extent, on the contributions made in our labs by graduate students, and postdocs, all of whom are really highly qualified personnel, which the government seems to always to be concerned with developing,” Harvey said.  

“It's for these reasons that we're here supporting the Support Our Science campaign, which is exactly right in calling on the Trudeau Government to do two things: To increase the value and number of federal scholarships and fellowships earmarked for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.”

The Bouchard report states that “Canada’s wellbeing, prosperity, and global competitiveness will hinge ever more on how well we can nurture and empower our talented minds” and emphasizes that it is incumbent upon the federal government to invest in the future of innovation and research in Canadian universities.  

Peterborough, as a city with a university which, over the past decade, has shifted focus to attract more international students—a significant portion of whom are projected to enroll in the school’s graduate and professional programs—the chronic underfunding of research at the graduate and postdoctoral level affects the ability for the university to attract and retain graduate students, researchers, and faculty. 

The ongoing lack of a permanent tenant for the proposed Cleantech Commons development, and the inability to break ground on the project stands as a prime example of the impacts these federal decisions have a compounding effect especially on smaller institutions who are striving to increase research intensity and graduate enrolment—especially from international students and researchers.