Canada’s federal budget, presented March 4, 2010, has been passed by the House of Commons. The 451 page document describes cuts to the public service and foreign aid, in addition to limited spending on the military and EI premiums. Stimulus programs continue, however little new money has been announced. The plan is to reduce the $53.8B deficit to $1.8B by 2015.
Despite aggressive cost cutting measures, new money for innovation has been provided. Post- doctoral training was highlighted as a key investment. Granting agencies and Genome Canada received additional funds. Innovation projects such as TRIUMF, NRC clusters, RADARSAT have received substantial investments. Regional development organizations have also received funding to support innovation and job creation across the country.
Excerpts on Innovation from the Canadian Federal Budget 2010
Compiled from budget (Source: Ministry of Finance, Budget 2010)
Budget 2010 makes targeted changes to improve Canada’s productivity growth through innovation by:
- Providing $45 million over five years to establish a post-doctoral fellowship program to help attract the research leaders of tomorrow to Canada.
- Delivering $222 million in funding over five years to strengthen the world-leading research taking place at TRIUMF, Canada’s premier national laboratory for nuclear and particle physics research.
- Increasing the combined annual budgets of Canada’s research granting councils by an additional $32 million per year, plus an additional $8 million per year to the Indirect Costs of Research Program.
- $16 million CIHR
- $13 million NSERC ($8M research and $5M strategy for partnership and innovation)
- $3 million SSHRC
- Providing Genome Canada with an additional $75 million for genomics research.
- Doubling the budget of the College and Community Innovation Program with an additional $15
million per year. - Providing $135 million over two years to the National Research Council Canada’s regional innovation clusters program.
- Providing $48 million over two years for research, development and application of medical isotopes.
- Providing a total of $497 million over five years to develop the RADARSAT Constellation Mission.
- Launching a new Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Innovation Commercialization Program with $40 million over two years.
- Renewing and making ongoing $49 million in annual funding for the regional development agencies to support innovation across Canada.
Prepared by: Robert Merson
