Lab upgrades
U of T to get $98M boost from Ottawa, province,
OTTAWA— The federal Liberals will join with Queen’s Park today to pump tens of millions of dollars into University of Toronto research labs to help fuel Ottawa’s innovation agenda, the Star has learned.
The new investments for the university — a total of $98 million from both governments — is the first funding from the new $2 billion Strategic Investment Fund that was announced in the federal Liberals’ spring budget to modernize research facilities on campuses nationwide.
The funding will support the Lab Innovation for Toronto (LIFT) project to improve 546 labs across the university’s three campuses, according to a news release prepared for the announcement.
Ottawa is contributing $83.7 million and Queen’s Park is kicking in $14.3 million.
The University of Toronto will contribute an additional $91.8 million for a total investment of $189.8 million.
Navdeep Bains, the minister for innovation, science and economic development, and Science Minister Kirsty Duncan — who both represent Greater Toronto ridings — will be on the university’s campus Thursday morning to unveil the new spending.
They will be joined by Deb Matthews, Ontario’s minister of advanced education and skills development, and Reza Moridi, the minister of research, innovation and science.
The federal government is expected to highlight the announcement as an example of its new focus on innovation to create jobs.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rolled out the Liberal party’s innovation agenda during last year’s election, saying at the time that Canada was falling behind in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
“New technologies are disrupting old economic models, and emerging economies are taking an evergrowing share of the global marketplace,” Trudeau said during a campaign stop to promise bigger investments to encourage innovation.
The minister in charge touts that agenda as a “once-in-a-generation” investment to make Canada a global centre for innovation. “That means making Canada a world leader in turning ideas into solutions, science into technologies, skills into jobs and start-up companies into global successes,” Bains said in the news release.
“This investment will create conditions that are conducive to innovation and long-term growth, which will in turn keep the Canadian economy globally competitive.”
For the federal Liberals, a critical part of that strategy is investing in post-secondary education to foster campus classrooms and labs as incubators for new ideas and collaboration with businesses.
Ontario universities and colleges will receive more than $1.9 billion from the federal and provincial governments, the institutions themselves and private donors.
“As a result of these investments, students, teachers and researchers will work in state-of-the-art facilities that advance the country’s best research,” the news release said.