Picture of provincial S&T expenditures distorted by incomplete StatsCan data

Wild swings in expenditures and incomplete data make the latest Statistics Canada report on scientific and technological activities of the provinces something of a minefield for determining funding trends and highlights. While the data presented indicate that total provincial spending on scientific activity declined 3.2% to $2.1 billion in FY08-09 from a year earlier, the absence of four provinces including Quebec from the tally paints an incomplete picture of the contributions provincial governments are making to Canada's S&T effort.

Quebec no longer collects data on related scientific activities, necessitating its omission from total S&T expenditures data. Adding to the confusion are incomplete data from British Columbia (presented with a "Use with Caution" proviso) due to that province's failure to provide data for FY08-09. (StatsCan did obtain 2009 intentions data for BC when it collected data for the reference year of FY07-08).

When R&D is isolated, however, Quebec's expenditures are up 1.5% to $511.7 million, a fraction below Ontario's R&D total of $514.2 million. However, Ontario's FY08-09 R&D outlays are down 6.1% from FY06-07 when an "extraordinary expenditure" of $96.8 million was registered.

Alberta continues to increase R&D outlays at a rapid rate, climbing 8.6% in FY08-09 to $407.3 million for a five-year increase of 54.7%. The opposite trend was experienced by BC, which saw R&D expenditures decline 31.5% (once again based on incomplete data). BC and Ontario were the only participating provinces to register a decline in R&D outlays, but they dragged down the total which dropped 6.1% from FY07-08.

Of the $2.1 billion in total S&T expenditures for FY08-09, natural sciences and engineering (NSE) accounted for $1.7 billion or 77.5%, and the social sciences and humanities accounted for $481.8 million. While Ontario was the top NSE spender at $682.3 million, Alberta was a close second with $553.3 million (no Quebec data available). Alberta also leads the country in intramural NSE spending at $235.9 million, followed by Ontario with $187.3 million.

Canada's six remaining provincial and territorial research organizations accounted for only $99.5 million in 2008, led by the Saskatchewan Research Council ($36.7 million), Centre de recherche industrielle du Québec ($31.4 million) and Aurora Research Institute (NWT) ($17.7 million).

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