BC Budget devoid of new S&T initiatives as government touts overall business environment

The Liberal government of British Columbia is sticking to its guns and delivering broad-based support for innovation and R&D in the province. Its February 15 Budget contained little in the way of specific program initiatives or new tax mechanisms, opting instead to emphasize a balanced budget, improvements in the overall economy and a $1.7-billion payment for debt reduction.

Two initiatives mentioned in the February 8 Speech from the Throne – an expansion of the BC Centre for Disease Control and $100 million in 2007 to support the work of the Michael Smith Foundation – received no elaboration in the Budget.

“There are no specific initiatives although we’re still interested in further developing the biotechnology cluster and we plan to become a top ten technology centre by 2010,” says John Les, minister of Small Business and Economic Development. “There was serious tax relief in our first Budget and we’ve expanded on it. The province now has the lowest income tax rate in the country and we have the West Coast lifestyle. High technology workers are attracted to this.”

The initiatives outlined in the budget speech and Budget papers are clearly geared towards boosting the Liberal image in the lead-up to the next provincial election. For the first time, BC’s election has a fixed date — May 17 — and the Budget’s provisions will only be passed if the Liberals are returned to power.

In the meantime, there’s no indication that the few remaining provincial programs dedicated to S&T and innovation will see new money any time soon. The BC Innovation Council (BCIC) — created last year from the remnants of the Innovation and Science Council of BC and the BC Advanced Systems Institute — won’t be increased from its current $3.3-million allocation, although Les indicates he would have preferred additional funding.

“The BCIC is still in early days. I would liked to have upped the budget,” he says. “We’ll evaluate it year-by-year. We’re looking for it to establish partnerships in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.”

The government’s three-year fiscal plan indicates that there could be movement in the intellectual property (IP) regime governing high technology industries. Concerned over homegrown IP moving offshore for tax reasons, the government plans to examine the issue in the coming months and “plans to introduce changes during the 2005/2006 fiscal year”.

Les says the Throne Speech’s reference to new funding for the Michael Smith Foundation and the BC Centre for Disease Control is part of a larger effort to have Vancouver recognized as the logical location for a national centre, even though Ottawa has already been tagged Winnipeg as the location of choice for the Canadian Public Health Agency (R$, November 22/04).

“Even though the national centre was established in Winnipeg, we’re still going ahead,” he says. “The reputation of our centre will increase over time and it will recommend itself as the logical place for a national centre. BC is the gateway to Asia Pacific so it makes sense.”

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