Highlights

Scientific and technological activities of provincial governments and provincial research organizations, 2003/2004 to 2007/2008

This report includes scientific and technological (S&T) activities involving the generation, dissemination and application of new scientific and technological knowledge for the six provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. The main S&T activity is research and development (R&D). Related scientific activities (RSA) are also included. Scientific expenditures for Newfoundland and Labrador are based on last year’s survey and therefore their data for 2007/2008 are indicated as preliminary. The provincial government of Quebec conducts a survey of its R&D activities, the results of which it shares with Statistics Canada.

1. The leading provinces for total R&D expenditures in 2007/2008 continued to be Ontario ($595.3 million); Quebec ($498.1 million) and Alberta ($374.9 million) (table 3-1).
2. In 2007/2008, total expenditures on scientific activities by the six provinces varied by socio-economic objectives. For all six provinces, protection and improvement of human health was ranked as one of the top five S&T expenditure objectives as determined by the amount spent. (table 5)
3. Of the six provinces, British Columbia had the largest S&T expenditure increase at over 41% (table 3-1). This increase reflects higher S&T spending in both the natural sciences up by 59% (table 3-3) and the social sciences, up 7.5% over the previous year (table 3-7).
4. In 2007/2008 the distribution of S&T expenditures varied by province. Intramural S&T expenditures predominated in Manitoba (55%), New Brunswick (51%), Newfoundland and Labrador (42%) and Alberta (41%). (table 3-2)
5. For 2007/2008 Ontario allocated 41% of its total S&T expenditures to the higher education sector and 25% on intramural spending. For British Columbia, about 28% of S&T expenditures went to intramural spending and 26% to the higher education sector. (table 3-2)
6. In 2007/2008, British Columbia dedicated 73% of S&T expenditures to R&D followed by, Alberta and Ontario, both at 63%, New Brunswick at 43%, Manitoba at 33% and Newfoundland and Labrador at 14% (table 3-2).
7. In 2007/2008 total expenditures of provincial research organizations on scientific activities reached approximately $112 million, an increase of 48% over the previous year. The majority of this increase was due to the Aurora Research Institute having a three year R&D contract of $34 million which ended in early 2009. (table 14)