On November 4th, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first, thirty-person cabinet was sworn into office. This group includes two ministers who will hold research and development-related portfolios in the new government. Kirsty Duncan, a medical geographer and former professor at the University of Windsor and the University of Toronto, was named Minister of Science, replacing outgoing minister Ed Holder, who had served in that capacity since March 2014. Professor Duncan served on the Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and has been a Member of Parliament since 2008.
Navdeep Singh Bains will head the renamed Industry Canada, now the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, previously helmed by James Moore. The new minister is a former professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management and a former accountant at the Ford Motor Company of Canada. He previously served as an MP from 2004-2011 before being re-elected in 2015.
The new Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development reflects a shift in the organization of the ministry. Previously, the six regional development agencies responsible for administering regional government funding programs, including the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD), and the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev), were assigned to individual cabinet ministers. In the new government, Professor Bains will be the portfolio minister responsible for the six agencies.
The appointments, in addition to the centralization of the 6 regional development agencies, may indicate a re-emphasis on research and development and its contribution to Canadian economic development. We will continue to outline what impact these governmental changes will have on the state of government funding in Canada as more details become available.