NRC shift seen as bad omen for province
New Brunswick likely is about to lose its most prestigious research and development institute due to a change in direction at the National Research Council.
Warren McKenzie, chairman of the advisory board for the NRC’s Institute for Information Technology, said Wednesday he expects the institute, which has facilities in Fredericton and Moncton as well as outside New Brunswick, will be closed by next spring.
“Unfortunately it is my belief that IIT will soon cease to exist as an institute and its talent, or at least those who remain, will be absorbed into as yet undefined programs,” McKenzie said in a speech at a dinner for UNB’s faculty of computer science.
“If it comes to pass, this is regrettable.”
McKenzie, a successful software developer, philanthropist and UNB graduate, said it’s his opinion the institute will be closed, based on what he has learned behind the scenes.
He stressed that nothing has been announced about the institute’s fate. But he believes it’s just a matter of time.
“I really hope I’m wrong, but this is my industry,” he said in an interview. “I have been intimately involved with the NRC in Fredericton since it was set up.”
Ali Ghorbani, dean of computer science at UNB, said the loss of the NRC institute would be a blow to research and development in New Brunswick where the facility is involved in everything from medical research to helping companies take their products to market.
“The researchers are adjunct professors with us so they sometimes teach and supervise graduate students,” he said of the institute, which is headquartered on the UNB campus in Fredericton.
“Also important is the interaction between their researchers and our faculty members – they complement each other in different domains. They also are a good employer of our co-op students and sometimes our graduates end up working in their building. …?We would lose so much if it closes.”
McKenzie said loss of the institute would also be a setback for the development of computer technology in New Brunswick, which is estimated to provide more than 1,000 jobs in the province.
“NRC IIT has been a huge resource for Canada and New Brunswick,” he said.
“The leverage of federal dollars through IIT has been five to one. The site in Moncton has been responsible for the discovery of two critical biomarkers for cancer in conjunction with Atlantic Cancer Research Institute. With such a proven record of success and the federal government’s expressed priority in ICT, which is software dominated, the role of the NRC IIT is impressive.”
McKenzie said the decision to close institutes will be a unilateral federal decision made without consideration of the impact on Canada’s regions.
“The Province of New Brunswick has a significant financial stake in the NRC, a lot of money in it,” he said.
“This will be a unilateral federal decision to make these changes. Every province that has been a partner is impacted. I’m not sure everyone realizes just how significant this will be.”
McKenzie’s comments follow recent public statements by NRC president John McDougall who said he intends to move the venerable 94-year-old institution away from “curiosity research” toward work on a cluster of key scientific challenges that have the potential to drive Canada’s economy.
So far, the short list of four flagship projects includes research into higher-output wheat strains, printable electronics, composite materials made from biomass and CO2-ingesting algae.
McKenzie said software development is where it’s at in the computer technology industry.
“Anyone who thinks that software licensing has no value should take it up with Bill Gates,” he said.
“Microsoft is a multibillion-dollar world leader because of it.”
The NRC Institute for Information Technology is a multi-site organization. Its staff and research programs are dispersed among four locations in Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick.
All NRC-IIT locations are dedicated to research and development in software and systems technologies, but each site focuses on different areas of research.
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