New and continuing S&T commitments emerge despite the carnage of BC politics

Amidst the hype and confusion that is British Columbia politics, it's hardly surprising that science and technology (S&T) were afforded barely a mention in the province's pre-election Budget (http://www.gov.bc.ca/). With the governing party's chances of re-election virtually nil, the Budget speech was more about saving face than providing a substantive fiscal road map for the next year. The focus of the speech was on heath care and education at the expense of any measures related to the knowledge-based economy or economic development in general.

Indeed, the details for FY01-02 of existing S&T programs and vehicles were not released until more than two weeks after the Budget was tabled, and while the measures are minor they're worth noting. The budget for the BC Science and Technology Fund will be down marginally to $23.6 million (including $5.24 million for telecom initiatives). It's not expected that the decrease will result in any drastic curtailment of existing spending patterns.

There will be some new funding for two modest initiatives related to CANARIE Inc's CA*net3 high-speed research infrastructure and BC's provincial node, the Optical Regional Advanced Network (ORAN). The government will provide $1.6 million in year-end money (FY00-01) to connect ORAN to CA*net3, and another $2.4 million to extend ORAN beyond the province's universities to its five university colleges.

Perhaps more encouraging are announcements that the BC government made outside the Budget envelope, particularly the decision to create the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research with $110 million in year-end money (see page 3). Other announcements, while tied to federal initiatives, demonstrate that although the NDP government is girding for inevitable defeat at the polls, it is still cognizant of the need to ensure that BC's knowledge-based economy remains competitive.

That has resulted in a $27.8-million award through the Knowledge Development Fund for the new Cancer Research Centre in downtown Vancouver. The funding is BC's contribution to the $82-million project, which also received funding from the Can-ada Foundation for Innovation and the BC Cancer Agency. Billed as Canada's first fully integrated cancer research centre, the facility will house the genome sequencing centre once headed up by the late Dr Michael Smith and will be located across the street from the BC Cancer Agency's primary treatment centre.

The BC government has also moved on funding for fuel cells demonstration, with a federal-provincial contribution of $4.75 million for the testing and evaluation of bus engines. Under the agreement, BC Transit will purchase three engines from XCELLSIS Fuel Cell Engines, a joint venture of Ballard Power Systems Inc and Ford Motor Co. The funding is part of a $13-million commitment under the Western Economic Partnership Agreement to support fuel cell demonstration projects (R$, November 29/00).

XCELLSIS will test the engines and evaluate and generate data on operating and maintenance requirements, with access to the data afforded to BC Transit.

BC LIBERALS FORGING S&T GAME PLAN

While the NDP attempt to delay the inevitable, BC Liberal leader Gordon Campbell has been sending out strong and detailed signals to the province's technology community, including a March 6 address to BC Technology Industries Association. In his speech, Campbell indicated he will revive the moribund Premier's Council on Technology, appointing a new chair, creating a full-time president's position and requiring that it hold public quarterly meetings. Its first order of business will be to provide recommendations to government on accelerating development of the province's communications infrastructure and Internet capability.

Campbell asserted that he wants to create a more business-friendly environment via lower personal income tax rates, investment in communications infrastructure, changes to the regulatory regime and greater R&D spending. He also pledged to establish a Leading Edge Endowments program of 20 leadership chairs in key areas on a 50-50 cost shared basis with the private sector.

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