Announcement of $32.5 Million in Funding for the Canada Foundation for Innovation

Speaking Points

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, PC, MP
Minister of State (Science and Technology)

Kingston, Ontario
July 26, 2010

Check Against Delivery

Thank you for the kind introduction.

It is a pleasure for me to be back here with you at St. Lawrence College, a college with a long and prominent history of providing world-class education to students, through its excellent faculty and staff, and state-of-the-art facilities.

This excellence was recognized in a $2.3-million grant that I announced in May of this year to support a project at this college to develop and test emerging technologies in solar, geothermal, wind and biomass energy. You will recall that our government also provided funding recently for this college to revitalize its Cornwall and Brockville campuses.

These are some examples of the Government of Canada's investment and strong commitment to knowledge, research and innovation as the key to our economic growth and success. Our government is investing in science and technology — to create jobs, strengthen the economy and improve the quality of life of Canadians.

Last time I was here, I mentioned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the Science and Technology Strategy in 2007. For the past three years we have invested in Canadians — their know-how and ideas.

We have increased our investments in research at colleges and universities across the county. We have renewed labs and research facilities and provided new equipment for researchers through programs.

We are funding new initiatives to support college research through Canada's Economic Action Plan, like the Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative that I launched earlier this year and the College and Community Innovation Program that was made permanent.

In fact, this year in total, our government will invest a record $10.7 billion in science and technology.

Clearly, we are making a difference. Canada is number one in the G7 for support of research and development at our colleges and universities.

Today, I am pleased to announce that the Government of Canada will invest in colleges and polytechnics across the country to allow them to create leading-edge research facilities that will attract top researchers to their campuses. This investment will also help local businesses conduct research, develop new "made-in-Canada" innovations and bring those innovations to the marketplace by working in partnership with colleges.

In total, our government is investing $32.5 million, through the Canada Foundation for Innovation, to colleges so they can make sure their researchers have the best equipment and research facilities.

This investment will be drawn from a $600-million fund the government is providing to the Canada Foundation for Innovation as part of Canada's Economic Action Plan.

The new college fund acknowledges the importance that colleges have in education and research development. The fund will provide colleges with the support they need to ensure that they have the latest research equipment and facilities to take innovative research from the lab to the marketplace. It will support research infrastructure projects in colleges across the country, creating economic opportunities and jobs for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

This government is investing in research infrastructure because applied research facilities provide researchers, faculty and students, as well as their local and regional industry partners, with the tools they need to succeed and prosper.

Investing in college research infrastructure will better position colleges to work with the private sector, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, to foster technology diffusion and commercialization. Colleges play a key role in helping transfer new technologies that will result in new products, services and processes that will help Canadian companies succeed.

The investments through the Canada Foundation for Innovation also foster partnerships among the academic, private, public and not-for-profit sectors on a range of projects and research areas. These partnerships address the increasingly complex and interconnected environmental, economic and social challenges facing Canada and the world.

Canada's colleges are building their reputations as global leaders in research, and our government is committed to seeing that continue.

Thank you again to St. Lawrence College — I look forward to continuing our work together to sustain Canada's leadership and recovery in the global economy.

Thank you.