Canada's 2003 Budget Includes Major S&T Investments
The Government of Canada projects balanced budgets for the current fiscal year and the next two, backed by substantial reserves. Health care spending accounts for half of the funding initiatives in the budget. The budget adds new, phased tax reductions for businesses to the existing 5-year tax reduction plan that will further deepen the Canadian corporate tax advantage relative to the US. The highlights of Chapter 5 of the Budget, entitled "Strengthening Research and Innovation", include: * $125M more a year for the three federal granting councils: $55M for,Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), $55M for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and $15M for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) * Up to $105M a year for a new "Canada Graduate Scholarships" program for 2,000 Ph.D. Students ($35,000 a year for 3 years) and 2000 Masters students ($17,500 for 1 year) to be "allocated among the three granting councils in proportion to the distribution of the graduate student community": 60% SSHRC, 30% NSERC, 10% CIHR * $225M a year to support the Indirect Costs of University Research,through a permanent program administered by the granting councils * $500M for the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for health,research facilities * $75M for Genome Canada for applied health genomics * $20M for the Medical and Related Sciences (MaRS) incubator in,Toronto * $16M over 2 years for northern science; including $6M over 2 years,for the Polar Continental Shelf Project "to provide air transport and land-based infrastructure to Arctic researchers", and $10M over 2 years for the Targeted Geoscience Initiative * $70M more over 2 years for the National Research Council; including $25M per year to NRC's Industrial Research Assistance Program "to expand IRAP's core programming including its network of Industrial Technology Advisors", and $10M per year to establish new "regional innovation centres" in Regina and Charlottetown, and "to secure Canada's participation in leading-edge astronomy projects, including the Extended Very Large Array project in New Mexico and the Atacama Large Millimetre Array project in Chile". S&T-related funding in other portions of the Budget include: * $2 Billion over 5 years for implementing the Climate Change Technology Plan for Canada... including funding for Sustainable Development Technology Canada (an additional $250M in 2003-04) and the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (an additional $50M in 2003-04) * $113M this fiscal year for infrastructure at Canada's Four,veterinary colleges Statements by the CFI, CIHR and Genome Canada in response to the Budget are available on request.,
Länder
Canada