Alternative budget would boost basic research

It isn't the budget they're getting, but it has to have supporters of basic research dreaming "what if". Economists at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives unveiled their annual Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) March 15 with a series of anti-austerity measures it claims will boost productivity, create jobs and stimulate private investment.

AFB 2012 goes well beyond what Canada's research community dared asked for this year. It proposes more money for the granting councils, more money for universities, more money for basic research and lower tuition fees.

Like the Harper government, the AFB also proposes tightening the rules for the scientific research & experimental development (SR&ED) tax credit program. But while the feds plan to redirect the $500-$600 million in savings largely to direct support to firms, the AFB would shift its estimated $1 billion in savings to research grants.

The 156-page document criticizes the government's deterioration of support for basic research in favour of market-driven programs that it claims are leading to "an unhealthy private-sector dependency" on universities for their R&D.

To reverse this trend, the AFB recommends: increasing federal granting agencies' base budgets (10%); increasing the post-secondary education transfer ($637 million); reducing tuition fees ($1.3 billion); increasing the number of Canada Graduate Scholarships to 3,000 ($75 million); and, funding deferred maintenance at post-secondary institutions ($5 billion).

The AFB would also provide $50 million annually to support a network of new Sector Development Councils responsible for developing national strategies and action items for key industry sectors.

Among its recommendations: a 10% investment tax credit ($50 million/year) for green energy manufacturing; a $200 levy on all new vehicles ($300 million/year) to finance an Extended Producer Responsibility initiative; $300 million/year fund to support the forest industry's sustainable recovery; and ending subsidies for biofuel crops (savings $200 million/year) to help fund a $650 million annual Sustainable Farming Income Support program.

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