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The Trudeau government came to power boasting that it “believes in science,” but it seems that faith goes only so far.

Kirsty Duncan, the science minister, poured cool or cold water Wednesday on two key pieces of advice from an expert panel she appointed to examine Canada’s flagging science-research world.

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The panel’s request to boost research spending by $1.3 billion a year must be “balanced” carefully against other priorities, while the idea of a body of distinguished scientists that could affect funding decisions won’t happen, she said in an interview.

“I believe that as elected officials … who are responsible to the people who put them in government, we have to be prudent with taxpayer’s money. We have to be accountable,” said Duncan. “I don’t think putting in place an unelected body, I don’t think it should have say over funding. That’s not on.”