• SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    The government has budgeted $57.4 billion this year for health care.

    No new money.

    Canada would rather spend $400B on health care, $14B on mostly US drug costs, and still spend the bottom of G8 on biomedical research, which was decimated in the USA.

    This is from the guy critical of Canada for lack of productivity, but keeps Canada at half the world’s average spending on research as %GDP. With a hint of vision, we could fill a big gap coming into the US pharma industry. Liberals continue their anti-science budget run.

    • Scotty@scribe.disroot.org
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      1 day ago

      Education and research isn’t the same as we know.

      Canada spends 1.8% of its GDP for research, below the global average of 2.6% (and the high-income country average of 2.9%).

      I agree that is too low, but the new budget includes several measures regarding research:

      • The so-called “Productivity Mega Deduction" (a weird name imho, but that’s how they call it) which allows businesses to immediately deduct the full cost of new investments, lowering their tax burden
      • The “Canada Growth Incentive" consisting of a new tax exemption for “Canadian builders” on up to $15 million in capital gains earned from investments in eligible Canadian companies and changing the small business rollover to allow increased deferral of taxes on capital gains when proceeds are reinvested in another Canadian small business
      • A $930-million expansion of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax incentive program to help businesses bring new technologies to market and a $1 billion investment in the Strategic Response Fund for large-scale research and development projects

      The government has also previously announced to establish what the government called a “sovereign wealth fund" that will invest in Canadian companies and projects, but unlike typical government “investments,” it will be focused on achieving long-term returns, acting alongside private-sector investors

      So I have not yet a clear opinion what all this entails, but there are many good steps.

      However, what I wanted to say with my comment is that the headline provided by OP is simply wrong to say the least …