Universities get $900M in research grants
OTTAWA • The Trudeau government announced $900 million in research grants Tuesday, handing out the money in a series of co-ordinated back-to-school announcements designed to remind voters that the Liberal brand stands for science and economic growth.
From St. John’s to Waterloo, Ont., to Edmonton, an octet of ministers was dispatched to star in madefor-TV events designed to underline what is expected to be an increasingly common theme for the government in the months leading up to its second budget: innovation and the middle class.
“Support for science is an essential pillar in our strategy to create sustainable economic growth and support and grow the middle class,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told his Science Minister Kirsty Duncan in his mandate letter to her last fall.
Indeed, Duncan, a former University of Toronto health researcher, has been central to the government’s strategy to link these two ideas — science and the economy — in the voters’ minds.
She has had a relatively low profile in the House of Commons and spent her first months criss-crossing the country connecting with researchers and visiting postsecondary institutions.
Including Tuesday’s announcements, more than 350 projects worth more than $2 billion have been funded in Duncan’s name, making her the third-busiest of Trudeau’s ministers in spending Ottawa’s money. (Only Amarjeet Sohi, the infrastructure minister, and Navdeep Bains, the minister responsible for regional economic development agencies, have been involved in more federal funding announcements.)
On Tuesday, Duncan appeared at the University of Waterloo to turn over $76 million for research into advanced quantum physics. But whether it was Treasury Board President Scott Brison with $93 million for ocean and fisheries research at Dalhousie University in Halifax or Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr with $75 million for research into low-carbon energy at the University of Calgary, each presentation was in Duncan’s name.
The money is drawn from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, a pool of money established by the Harper Conservatives in the 2014 budget to help cover the cost of research on big ideas and big themes.
A first tranche of $350 million for five major research projects was awarded last summer by the previous government.
The second tranche, announced Tuesday, will see 13 institutions receive a combined $900 million for research on issues as varied as brain health, sustainable food and water supplies, energy and the environment.