“Pragmatic” is how Quebec’s chief scientist is characterizing the science, technology and innovation (STI) measures contained in the province’s most recent Budget, with substantial follow-on investments in artificial intelligence (AI), forestry research and genomics. Tabled on March 21 by Finance minister Eric Girard, the inaugural $108-billion financial blueprint from centre-right Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) includes a FY18-19 surplus of $2.5 billion and a balanced budget for FY19-20.

STI funding measures totaling $708.9 million were contained in two key areas: investing in innovative projects ($379.6) and speeding up the adoption of artificial intelligence ($329.3 million). Together they aim to leverage Quebec’s talent, research infrastructure and academic-industry collaboration to bolster economic growth and, in the case of AI, remain at the forefront in an increasingly competitive global environment.

“It seems like a lot of money but compared to what South Korea, China, Singapore and many other countries are investing, it’s not that much,” says Quebec chief scientist Dr. Rémi Quirion of the AI investment, speaking with RE$EARCH MONEY. “We have a good start, we have good people but … things are moving extremely quickly and it’s extremely competitive. To stay in the [AI] forefront, governments and industry need to continue to invest. Quebec’s investing on a yearly basis wouldn’t last a month at Google.”

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Quirion notes, however, that the focus on the province’s AI investments includes its social impact in various fields — a thrust that will be guided by the recently established International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies. The Observatory is comprised of 20 universities and colleges and encompasses nearly 90 research centres with a framework for structuring the development of AI in the province.

The single largest portion of the Budget’s AI provisions ($100 million) will go to the support of research activities and is being made available immediately as it is booked against FY18-19:

• Ivado Labs ($35 million);
• Mila (Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence) ($32.5 million);
• Scale AI ($15 million); and,
• Prompt Québec ($17.5 million).

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“The money is available right away [and] of course [Dr. Yoshua] Bengio will use a lot of it,” says Quirion. “A lot of it is for training or retraining … At the moment, most AI funding is for translational or applied research and not necessarily to develop the new algorithms of tomorrow.”

Budget uses existing policy framework

The Budget’s STI initiatives were guided by consultations with key innovation leaders and the province’s Quebec Research and Innovation Strategy (SQRI) and the Quebec Life Sciences Strategy, both released in 2017 by the previous Liberal government. More recently, a task force released a report — Strategy for the Development of Quebec’s Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem (PDF) — to guide future investments in the field.

Quirion says the CAQ largely relied on existing STI policies and strategies as they secured a mandate to govern just six months ago. In addition, the CAQ is a coalition, drawing many of its MPPs from the centre-right of the political spectrum. “In many cases, the [Budget’s ST] initiatives were already in these strategies. Overall it’s fairly consistent with the discussions we’ve had for the past two years,” says Quirion.

The Budget’s AI envelope includes $65 million to encourage businesses and public organizations to integrate AI in their operations: by supporting the upgrading of knowledge and skills of consultants and instructors; by helping companies that design applications based on AI; and by increasing the integration of AI applications in businesses. The funding will likely be provided through competitively based incentives to encourage companies that have historically lagged on technology adoption.

Quirion noted that Pierre Fitzgibbon, Quebec’s minister of the Economy and Innovation, had travelled to Germany with a large delegation of businesses in search of early adopters who might convince their MPs that using AI technologies can assist output productivity and international presence.

Innovative Projects

The bulk of funding in the envelope for investing in innovative projects is allocated towards developing strategic sites for innovative businesses ($320 million, with $100 million in eastern Montreal, $50 million in Quebec City, $100 million for future projects and $70 million spread over Gatineau, Laval, Longueuil, Lévis, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Saguenay).

A further $50 million is devoted to Programme Innovation Bois, which Budget documents indicate will be used to encourage investment supporting innovative products and processes in the forestry sector. The new money more than doubles the program’s budget from $45 million to $95 million over the next five years.

An additional $7.5 million goes to Genome Quebec for new applications, and to maximize socio-economic spinoffs in the areas of health, agri-food, forestry and the environment. Quirion says the Genome Quebec funding will leverage funds from other levels of government and the private sector and the majority could be used for applied research in the forestry sector, leveraging the new funding awarded to Programme Innovation Bois. “Most of the genomics will probably be going into forestry because that was the basis for most of the discussions with Genome Canada.”

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