ARC increases domination of spending by PROs

The Alberta Research Council (ARC) is rapidly increasing its share of scientific spending conducted by Canada's nine provincial research organizations (PROs), according to the latest Statistics Canada survey. ARC's spending of $60.5 million in 1998 represents a 43.6% share of total PRO spending of $138.8 million. And it's projected to jump more than $10 million to $70.6 million in 1999, commanding nearly half of total PRO spending of $146.5 million.

The recently re-vamped organization derived more than 70% of its 1998 budget from provincial funding and contracts, while 16.8% or $10.2 million came from Canadian industry.

ARC is followed by the Centre de recherche industrielle du Québec (CRIQ) which is projected to spend $35.0 million in 1999, down 6.4% from 1998. Next in line is the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), which will spend $20 million in 1999, up 5.6% from 1998. Taken together, the top three PROs account for 85.7% of all PRO spending in 1999. That share is much higher than in previous years when Ontario's ORTECH Corp was still a provincially run organization. It was privatized in early 1999 and its assets were sold to three separate firms. British Columbia's PRO is long gone, having been declared insolvent in 1993.

The remaining six PROs are small potatoes in comparison to the front runner. Their projected 1999 spending is: New Brunswick Research and Productivity Council ($8.3 million), InNOVAcorp (Nova Scotia) ($7.1 million), Manitoba Industrial Technology Centre ($2.8 million) Aurora Research Institute (Northwest Territories) ($1.3 million), NUNAVUT Research Institute ($0.9 million) and Yukon Research Institute ($0.4 million).

Secondary industries account for 49.3% of total 1998 expenditures by application, followed by primary industry (14.1%) and environment (12.3%).

Over the past 10 years, employment at PROs has fallen significantly from 2,134 in 1989 to 1,284 in 1998. ARC remains the largest employer with a staff of 473, followed by CRIQ (319) and SRC (238). Much of the drop between 1997 and 1998 is attributed to the privatization of ORTECH which employed 250 at dissolution.