The 2000 Budget: Promoting Skills, Knowledge and Innovation

Investing in the skills of Canadians and building an advanced infrastructure of knowledge and innovation is essential to our balanced and comprehensive plan for making Canada the place to be in the 21^st century.

Over the past six years, our government has made important strategic investments in support of this essential goal, including:

• Creating the Canadian Opportunities Strategy - a comprehensive plan to expand access to the knowledge, learning and skills Canadians need to get a shot at better jobs and a higher standard of living. It featured the Canada Millennium Scholarships and the Canada Education Savings Grants; 
• Creating the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), which is helping to modernize our national research infrastructure in our universities and teaching hospitals; 
• Creating the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to keep Canada on the cutting edge of health research and innovation -- substantially increasing funding to the Advanced Research Granting Councils and the Networks of Centres of Excellence program;
• and, Connecting all of our public schools and libraries to the Internet through SchoolNet.

Budget 2000 builds on this impressive foundation by:

• Fulfilling a Throne Speech commitment by providing $900 million over five years to fund and sustain 2000 21^st Century Chairs for Research Excellence at universities right across Canada.
• Increasing the endowment of the CFI by another $900 million - to $1.9 billion - so that it can continue its work into 2005;
• Investing $160 million in Genome Canada to advance the study of genes, biotechnology, and especially their application to priorities such as health;
• Investing $90 million to strengthen the government's ability to regulate biotechnology products and processes;
• Increasing the tax exemption for income from scholarships, fellowships and bursaries from $500 to $3,000. This means that there will be no federal tax on the average $3,000 Millennium Scholarship; and,
• Proposing a multi-year agreement by the end of 2000 with other levels of government and the private sector to improve highways, and municipal infrastructure - including green infrastructure and affordable housing - in urban and rural communities across the country.
• In support of this proposal, Budget 2000 sets asides $100 million in 2000-01, $350 million in 2001-02 and $550 million per year for the next four years.

   

• The 2000 Budget