Finance Minister Paul Martin tabled the government's first official budget in nearly two years in December, doling out billions in new defence and security spending to combat terrorism.

In total, the government plans to spend $7.7 billion over the next five years to beef up airport security, hire more police and intelligence officers, tighten immigrant and refugee screening measures, and enhance border security.

"Our purpose is clear: to keep Canadians safe, to keep terrorists out and to keep our borders open," Martin said in his speech to the House of Commons.

Despite the new spending, Martin predicts there will not be a deficit, leaving Canada the only G-7 country that will remain in the black during the current economic recession.

That's led many critics to wonder why Ottawa is not doing more to ensure the economic downturn does not become deeper or more protracted.

"For all the talk of assuring the economic security of Canadians, this budget does hardly anything additional to stimulate the economy," the Canadian Labour Congress said in its analysis. "There is nothing to help provinces shoulder the costs of health, education and welfare at a time of falling revenues. And there is not much of an economic stimulus."

While the budget's focus is squarely on security issues, there is some new money for research, including a one-time payment of $200 million to universities to help cover the indirect costs of research — expenses incurred for such things as maintaining and operating laboratories and libraries, and administering grants.

Robert Giroux, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, called the new federal funding a "winning strategy" for Canada.

"This has been an urgent need for Canada's universities for some time, and we're delighted that the federal government has committed to making ongoing funding for the indirect costs of research a priority."

However, CAUT says the one-time investment for indirect costs of research will not address the main problem confronting the country's universities and colleges.

"The real problem we're struggling with is the reduction in core operating grants to universities and colleges," said CAUT president Tom Booth. "The big cutbacks we've seen over the last several years mean that there just aren't enough funds to keep tuition fees down or to renew the faculty complement needed to provide the teaching and research."

Booth said the new funding might temporarily relieve some of the stress on university operating budgets which have been forced to make up research-related costs, but he added that operating grants remain well below previous levels.

"A long-term commitment to core funding would do more to help the research community than any other initiative the government could take," he said. "The first priority of the Finance Minister must be to increase the core operating funding of colleges and universities."

Student groups also said the new payment for indirect research costs misses the mark.

"We need a comprehensive approach to research, not one-time funding schemes that are merely diversions from the crisis of student debt and skyrocketing tuition fees," said Ian Boyko, national chair of the Canadian Federation of Students. "There is nothing in this budget to address the growing gap between those who can afford exorbitant tuition fees and those left behind in the knowledge economy."

The 2001 budget also unveiled plans for a 7 per cent increase to the budgets of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council beginning next year. The increase will raise NSERC's budget by $36.5 million, while SSHRC will see a more modest increase of $9.5 million.

The smaller increase for SSHRC was greeted with disappointment from those who hoped Ottawa would use the budget to address the historic underfunding of the social sciences and humanities.

"This budget is not balanced," said Patricia Clements, president of the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada. "In fact, it has created further imbalance, leaving the underfunded social sciences and humanities with only 11.5 per cent of the total granting councils budget."

Booth agrees and warns that some SSHRC programs will be on the chopping block as a result.

"Demand for SSHRC grants has been rising quickly. The inadequate increase in funding in this budget will mean programs will have to be cut," he said.