Ottawa reveals details of $1.5-billion fund for science strategy

In a recent visit to IBM headquarters in Markham, Ontario Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced a $1.5 billion funding program that will advance Canada's science research to a global scale. This is the first update to this field in 7 years. The program, Canada First Research Excellence Fund, will focus on bringing researchers to Canada and creating innovation in the private sector. In it, different universities and research institutions will bid for funding with proposals that will be judged based on scientific merit and alignment with government ideals. This fund will be used over seven years with $350 million offered in the first round of proposals.The 5 priority research areas stated by the strategy document are:

• environment and agriculture
• health and life sciences
• natural resources and energy
• information and communications technology
• advanced manufacturing

The major criticism against this program is that fact, that there was no mention of any ability of these federal scientists to communicate with the media, and the lack of mention of the budget cuts to these labs. 

In this article, we can see the government function of correcting for externalities being demonstrated. This government function includes providing incentives like subsidies or funding to create positive externalities. In creating this program, the government is giving more opportunities for scientists to stay in the country or give other scientists incentive to move and work here. If this program is successful, the scientific field in Canada will grow creating more jobs and helping the economy. One of the reasons that the government provides things like funding programs is to look at what helps the economy in the long run even if it might cost a bit in the short run. I believe that it's a smart idea to invest in new and young ideas that can make Canada an important country based on it's contributions to scientific research. 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-reveals-details-of-15-billion-fund-for-science-strategy/article21957502/