The Pallister government's approach to research and innovation at post-secondary education institutions

In Estimates on Monday May 7, I asked the Minister of Education and Training about his approach to research and innovation.

Mr. Gerrard: I'm interested in what the minister's approach is and thoughts are with regard to innovation and research, particularly post-secondary education level; what his view is, you know, where we should be going, how should we be funding it and what, you know, his approach overall is to this fairly important area.

Mr. Wishart: I thank the member for the question. Certainly, he–I appreciate, you know, that he has an interest in research and that research is important in the long term for Manitoba. We don't administer all aspects of research. Growth, Enterprise and Trade, in particular, funds a lot of the research that is done, much of it at our post-secondary institutions, much of it at the University of Manitoba, the member appreciates.

However, we also are very engaged with research that is done within some of the college situations, and we've been involved with Red River and some of their testing facilities that they had put in place there. And that is a bit of a different approach, in that they work much more closely with industry in terms of making sure that that is well co‑ordinated.

And we certainly have, actually, a very high rating nationally and internationally, in terms of our colleges, on the research side of things, mostly driven by some of their research facilities that have been–were put in in conjunction.

And, you know, some of this working with industry and getting them to put resources into the schools and the post-secondary institutions is a very good long-term solution. We talked a little bit about co-ops. That's not quite going as far, but it still gives us some of the same benefit when we have a jet engine in the Tec-Voc shop. The kids that come out of there can go into the aerospace industry with hands-on knowledge of how to do the rebuilds that are necessary, and that has worked extremely well. I can tell you the aerospace industry speak very highly of that.

And we've also had, with Stevenson Aviation, out of Red River, new donations toward training their people. And that's a, you know, a level above the high school. It's already in the post–

Mr. Chairperson: The hour being 5 p.m., committee rise.

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