This Week in Space for Canada

Last week in space for Canada was all about our federal government, it’s changing policies and newly allocated funding as outlined in both the Wednesday throne speech and the Thursday budget. This week for space in Canada is about whether these changes will help or hinder Canadian space focused activities.

The consensus is positive, more or less.
For example, the Aerospace Industry Association of Canada (AIAC) seems to have hit the nail on the head with their reaction to the events of last week in the March 4th press release titled “The Canadian Aerospace Industry Reacts to the 2010 Federal Budget” where they state:
“Although the budget makes no mention of the long awaited Long-Term Space Plan, the additional funding provided to the Canadian Space Agency to complete the Radarsat Constellation Mission is good news for the space industry.”
Over at Spaceref.ca the article titled “Budget 2010 – The News is not all bad for the Canadian Space Agency” goes into quite a bit of useful detail on the CSA budget and concludes:
“The governments Economic Action Plan provided the Canadian Space Agency with $110 million over three years in last years budget. Of that, it was reported that $10 million had been committed while another $36 million will be committed this year. The $36 million for this year is lower than the original $60 million allocated last year. While the committed stimulus money is lower this year than expected it appears other parts of the CSA budget were left intact. This does not come as surprise. At the end of this month the government will release the 2010-2011 Report on Plans and Priorities for the CSA which will include the revised estimates for budgets in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.”
This last comment would seem to suggest that perhaps there will be something close to a long-term space plan reasonably soon only we’ll end up calling it a “report on plans and priorities.”
Over on the R&D side, the Researcher Forum Blog, under the headline “Budget 2010: A Qualified Success” states:
“Last year’s cuts to the research granting councils, though relatively small, were magnified by their inclusion in a so-called “stimulus budget” full of spending increases in other areas. This year, the opposite is true. Funding increases, though relatively small, are made more significant by the context of spending restraint evidenced elsewhere in the budget.”
According to the budget breakdown as provided in the article “more than $1.1-billion in new research-related spending” is expected to be allocated over the next five years. In essence, “the research community is receiving more than 20% of new spending measures in this budget.”
The only negative note comes from Macleans magazine, where Paul Wells in his column “Peering into tomorrow, blind as a bat” claims that:
“There’s nearly $400 million over five years to develop new RADARSAT remote sensing satellites. That’s like buying a new laptop: it replaces off-the-shelf technology from a few years ago with new off-the-shelf technology that has benefited, automatically, like falling off a log, from Moore’s Law in the interim. Let other countries support the cutting edge of science; Flaherty will put his bets on the dull edge of technology.”
People over on the commerce and commercialization side of our big space focused table might disagree with the Macleans assessment and call the budget news good or perhaps even great. Since some of these people will be investing some of their money in some of our space focused research and commercialization activities over the next few years, we might want to at least listen to what they have to say.
For example, the Techvibes Technology Blog called last week “As good as a week can get for Canadian tech startups.” Although the article also mentioned Mantella Venture Partners and their launch of a $20 Million early stage technology fund and the Quebec Government commitment of $50 Million to three technology company seed funds the article states:
“…on March 4th, Canada’s Budget 2010 announced that non-residents will no longer need to pay withholding tax on the sale of shares in a Canadian corporation. This change to Section 116 of the Income Tax Act is particularly beneficial to the high tech sector which has lobbied for years to obtain relief.”
The Canadian Venture Capital Association blog (titled Capital Rants) also approves of the budget changes. In the blog post “Change in tax law sends a strong signal to international investors that Canada is “open for business” they state:
The CVCA Applauds Budget Decision to Remove Foreign Investment Barrier (CVCA release Link). The CVCA has long requested the elimination of Section 116 as it pertains to the venture capital and private equity industry and we wish to congratulate the federal government for taking action,” said Gregory Smith, President of the CVCA. “Many CVCA members, as well as a large number of individuals and organizations, have been actively encouraging the federal government to eliminate this section of the Income Tax Act which has had a dampening effect on cross-border venture capital and private equity transactions. Its removal provides an important signal to foreign investors that Canada welcomes their contributions to growing companies and employment.”
The only real downside to the budget was this statement, taken directly from the budget which claims that:
“Despite the high level of federal support, we continue to lag behind other advanced economies with respect to overall innovation performance, private sector investment in R&D, and the commercialization of research.
To ensure that federal funding is yielding maximum benefits for Canadians, the Government, in close consultation with business leaders from all sectors and our provincial partners, will conduct a comprehensive review of all federal support for R&D to improve its contribution to innovation and to economic opportunities for business. This review will inform future decisions regarding federal support for R&D. The Government is currently developing the terms of reference for the review.”
This last part sounds like something the Canadian Space Commerce Association should be discussing next week at it’s Toronto conference.
Since I’m attending, I think I’ll mention it to the other organizers and we’ll see what we can do to learn a little bit more about this review.
That’s all this week in space for Canada.