Canada Research Chairs: Framework Policies

Fiscal Challenges Dept: In much worse fiscal circumstances in 1995, government did not just cut spending, it realized it had to innovate in how to deliver government differently and more productively. This required cuts and investments, new thinking about how to deliver government services to Canadians, and the willingness to make difficult choices, according to Globe and Mail. The challenge today is somewhat different than then namely, how do we maintain our relatively strong fiscal position in a difficult global environment and the fiscal challenges facing Canada should not be underestimated, particularly in a number of provinces led by Ontario. The global recovery will be longer, slower and more volatile than expected, and these reduced growth prospects will negatively affect Canadian tax revenues and increase social safety net spending. In facing such a worsened economic reality, we are no different than any other OECD country; where we should be different is how we respond fiscally. At Industry Canada, where spending reductions were more than 40 per cent of the departmental budget, the reduction target was actually exceeded in order to reinvest in innovative ways of serving clients: shifting from subsidies to strategic information delivered electronically; new low-cost, high-impact initiatives such as Schoolnet to connect all Canadian schools to the Internet; reinvestment in university research through new models such as the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Canada Research Chairs; and modernizing framework policies to encourage growth rather than subsidies to finance it. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.