OTTAWA – In a bid to preserve its research budget, Agriculture Canada has done some creative budget cutting that may become a model for other federal departments.
Faced with a government-wide order to cut 10 percent from operating budgets last year and five percent this year, the department first got approval to protect the $250 million research budget by making deeper cuts in other areas of the department.
Then, it won approval from Treasury Board and Finance departments to cut the research funds, but to put the money into a special protected research fund.
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The money can only be freed up for use if the private sector matches it dollar for dollar.
This year, the fund will total $40 million.
“This is an innovative, creative way to support the minister’s insistence that research funding be an emphasis,” former deputy agriculture minister Rob Wright said.
“Indications are that industry is ready to put money in as well.”
Gordon Dorrell, director general of the western region with Agriculture Canada, said all of the $40 million was spoken for.
In the past, government has been responsible for much of the agriculture and food research spending. Food processing and manufacturing companies, many of them foreign-owned, have spent little.
The government dollar-for-dollar fund is the latest federal attempt to pry more research money out of the private sector.
Wright said companies putting up funds would have a major influence over what projects qualify for a share of the $40 million.
He said there has been a changing attitude in the private sector as farmers create research check-off funds and some companies increase their research budgets.
Meanwhile, the protected matching fund could be the way of the future for other government departments trying to preserve vulnerable research budgets.
“Research and development was a government commitment. We’ve been encouraging other departments to follow our lead and adopt it. Some have expressed interest.”
He said science minister Jon Gerrard supports the department plan as a way to direct scarce public dollars to research.
