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Scientific and technological activities of provincial governments and provincial research organizations, 2005/2006 to 2009/2010

This bulletin reports on scientific and technological (S&T) activities involving the generation, dissemination and application of new scientific and technological knowledge for the provincial governments of New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

Within this bulletin, the main S&T activity is research and development (R&D). Although not provided by the provincial government of Quebec, spending on related scientific activities (RSA) are available for all other participating provinces. RSA includes activities such as technical surveys, special services or studies to form provincial standards and statistical surveys.

Note to readers

For New Brunswick, the spending intentions for 2009/2010 were collected in reference year 2008/2009.

Similarly for British Columbia, the spending intentions for 2008/2009 were collected in reference year 2007/2008.

Saskatchewan collected data as a limited pilot from seven ministries for reference year 2007/2008. For 2008/2009 the survey included 15 ministries. This difference in survey coverage contributes to the year-over-year change in expenditures and personnel.

Since 1994/1995, the provincial government of Quebec has conducted and processed its own survey of R&D activities, and shared the results with Statistics Canada. R&D expenditures are included in R&D totals reported by Statistics Canada, but are excluded from Statistics Canada's total provincial government S&T expenditures, in order to permit accurate intra-provincial comparisons.

Statistics Canada obtained permission from respondents to the Scientific Activities of Provincial Research Organizations Survey to publish their information by name to support analysis.

  1. In 2009/2010, total expenditures on scientific activities (S&T) by the six participating provincial governments was $1.9 billion, down 11.2% from the previous year.
  2. Overall, the top four S&T expenditure objectives for 2009/2010 were: protection and improvement of human health ($356.2 million); basic research ($281.3 million); control and care of the environment ($255.9 million); and social structures and relationships ($230.4 million) (Table 5).
  3. Of the six participating provincial governments, Manitoba alone experienced an increase in provincial government S&T expenditure ($103.9 million) in 2009/2010, up $3.7 million from the previous year (Table 3-1).
  4. In 2009/2010, all participating provinces except Saskatchewan decreased their intramural (in-house) S&T expenditures from the previous year. However, intramural S&T expenditures still predominated in all participating provinces with the exception of Ontario, where the largest portion of S&T expenditures was directed to the higher education sector (42%) (Table 3-2).
  5. The total research and development (R&D) expenditures of the provincial governments of New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia was $1.7 billion in 2009/2010. Of the seven participating provincial governments, Quebec ($584.8 million) led for total R&D expenditures in 2009/2010 followed by Ontario ($429.0 million) and Alberta ($413.1 million) (Table 3-2).
  6. The provincial government of Alberta led the provinces for intramural (in-house) R&D expenditures ($137.8 million), followed by Quebec ($87.5 million) and Saskatchewan ($65.8 million) (Table 3-2).
  7. In 2009/2010, the total expenditures of provincial research organizations (PROs) on scientific activities were $92.7 million, a decrease of 7% from the previous year. The 34% ($12.5 million) increase in S&T expenditures recorded by the Saskatchewan Research Council largely masked the decrease of 78% (-$13.8 million) reported by the Aurora Research Institute due to the completion of a large three-year R&D contract in 2009/2010 (Table 14).