Call for letter writing
campaign
From Dr. Joel Weiner, University of Alberta, regarding CIHR funding
23 July 2001
| Dear Colleagues, The Liberal Caucus will be meeting on August 21 to consider priorities for the coming parliamentary session. As you are aware, it is essential that the government put in place a plan to increase the CIHR budget to at least $1 billion in the next 3 years. At this time, we must lobby key individuals so that a substantial increase in funding is included in the next budget. I ask that you circulate the attached letter to your Faculty members and ask that they use it as a model to write their own letters to Jean Chretien, Alan Rock and Paul Martin as well as local MPs or any other contacts they have in the Liberal Caucus. The addresses are available on the government web site (www.gc.ca). I also hope that some of our colleagues in the Quebec Universities will create a French translation of this letter and circulate it. In your letter it is important to thank the Liberals for the important investments that the government has made in research and for the creation of CIHR. It is also important to identify some local or Canadian success stories, however, we must keep the pressure up and inform them that the job is not done. If CIHR is to be viable, it must have a much larger budget to do follow through with all the important initiatives, which have been identified over the past two years. Please take a few minutes and write a letter. It will help. Many thanks for your cooperation. Joel H. Weiner, PhD Chair, ACMC Standing Committee on Research and Graduate Studies |