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Highlights

Scientific and Technological (S&T) activities of Provincial Governments and Provincial Research Organizations, 2001/2002 to 2005/2006

This report includes scientific and technological (S&T) activities involving the generation, dissemination and application of new scientific and technological knowledge. The main activity is research and experimental development (R&D). Related scientific activities (RSA) are also included.

Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia participate in surveys of their provincial governments’ science and technology activities which are conducted with Statistics Canada. The provincial government of Québec conducts a survey of its R&D activities the results of which it shares with Statistics Canada. This report presents the results of these surveys as well as S&T activities of Provincial Research Organizations (PRO).

1. In 2005/2006, total expenditures on scientific activities by the four provinces varied by objectives. For all four provinces, protection and improvement of human health was ranked as one of the top three S&T expenditure objectives as determined by amount spent (table 5 ).
2. Of the four provinces, British Columbia had the largest S&T expenditure increase at 40.4% (table 3-1 ). This increase reflects higher S&T spending in both the natural sciences at 25.2% (table 3-3 ) and the social sciences, 72.3% over the previous year (table 3-7 ).
3. In 2005/2006 the distribution of science and technology (S&T) expenditures varied by province. Intramural S&T expenditures predominated in Manitoba (69%) and Alberta (52%). Ontario allocated 47% of its total S&T expenditures to the higher education sector and 30% on intramural spending. For British Columbia, 29% of S&T expenditures went to intramural spending and 42% to other S&T performers including municipal governments, individuals and other institutions not identified in the performing sectors (table 3-2 ).
4. In 2005/2006 Québec showed an increase of 2% over the previous year to reach $423.9 million in R&D expenditures for the province. Only Ontario had a smaller increase. All other provinces showed larger increases in R&D expenditures with Manitoba at 4.7%, Alberta at 4.2% and British Columbia at 70.9% (table 3-1 ).
5. In 2005/2006 total expenditures of provincial research organizations (PRO) on scientific activities reached over $72 million, an increase of 1.7% over the previous year (table 14 ).