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Budget labelled a “deception”

Quebec’s new innovation council is facing mass defections in the wake of the March 23rd provincial Budget, with five resignations already submitted and more anticipated in the coming days.

Ontario focuses on commercialization

The Budgets of three of Canada’s largest provinces provide a startling contrast in how each approaches the complex task of stimulating increased research and innovation.

The apparent lack of specific R&D or innovation measures in the Alberta Budget disguises a host of measures in which research and innovation are inextricably linked. Royalties from surging energy prices have permitted major infusions of funding into the health and education systems that include research components, while many S&T initiatives are taking shape outside of the budgetary process.

The decline of innovation and research as top priorities of the Quebec government shows no signs of abating. Finance minister Michel Audet delivered a Budget last week that keeps the lights on at a few institutions but ignores the desperate financial plight of post-secondary institutions and the needs of the research community.

May 18 in Vancouver:

The conference will focus on how to leverage Western Canada’s R&D-intensive industries, its resource sector, and its institutional base of research and education to take advantage of the rapid growth in China, India and other Asian countries.

Intramural expenditures on biotechnology S&T have declined to one third of all spending funded by the federal government, due to sharply increased funding of the higher education sector. Federal outlays on biotech S&T reached $792.

Canada’s two biggest high-tech industry associations are applauding the recommendations of the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel which calls for accelerating the pace of deregulation of competitive telecom markets, a less intrusive role for the Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and the creation of incentives to encourage the adoption of information and communications technologies (ICT).

Several modifications on the table

Canada Research Chairs (CRC) administrators are weighing options to enhance the program’s role as a national strategic resource. Buoyed by the program’s success to date, the CRC steering committee is considering a number of modifications prompted in part from recommendations delivered last year by a report on its first five years of operation (see chart).

Three proposals from a field of 17 have been selected for an International Joint Venture competition, jointly sponsored by a consortium composed of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Genome Canada.

Univ of Waterloo president advocates new act to enhance learning and innovation

Dr David Johnston is hoping that a new federal regime in Ottawa may offer an opportunity to implement a decades-old investment strategy to enhance Canada’s performance in education and innovation.