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The British Columbia government has authorized funding for projects awarded to Genome BC, nearly two years after the original announcements were made. The prov-ince is allocating $27.5 million for the five research projects and one infrastructure project won by Genome BC under Genome Canada’s first competition.

Quebec Budget

The Parti Quebecois’ pre-election Budget provided multifaceted support to the ongoing implementation of Quebec’s science and innovation policy, with several new and extended initiatives focused on remaining innovation gaps, specific sectors and the high tech business environment.

Budget 2003

Decisions on how the S&T portion of the Budget’s climate change funding will be spent are expected this spring as the government launches an internal process to decide how it will be partitioned.

The federal S&T community is losing one of its most effective champions with the retirement today of Dr Robert Slater. A mainstay of science policy at Environment Canada since its inception in the early 1970s, and an eloquent spokesperson for federal S&T across government, Slater has had a hand in many of the key files in recent history.

The National Capital Region (NCR) continues to be home to the largest single portion of federal science and technology expenditures, according to the latest Statistics Canada data on their geographical distribution.

CIHR biggest spender

Genome Canada and increased funding for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) helped push federal expenditures on biotechnology R&D and related scientific activities up 28.

Canada may still be waiting for the Innovation Strategy action plan but Industry Canada is busy following up on last November’s summit with a series of targeted national workshops. The first was held in Winnipeg and focused on best practices for innovation–based community economic development.

Budget 2003

Last month’s federal Budget announcement of an additional $75 million in funding for Genome Canada is being viewed as a vote of confidence in an organization that is only beginning to show tangible results.

Budget 2003

The National Research Council (NRC) has received a modest financial boost to its regional innovation cluster strategy with $10-million boost to its base budget. The new funding will be used four ways by allowing the agency to establish technology centres in Charlottetown and Regina (R$, February 5/03), as well as clearing the way for participation in two international astronomy projects.

pinion is split on why $2 billion set aside for climate change initiatives in the Budget comes with scant detail on how the money is to be spent. Other than the replenishment of two foundations established in previous Budgets, $1.