Ottawa plows billions into innovation programs to spur growth

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland plans to significantly increase Ottawa’s spending on bolstering Canada’s high-tech sector to foster economic growth and further increase the country’s competitiveness on a global scale.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland plans to significantly increase Ottawa’s spending on bolstering Canada’s high-tech sector to foster economic growth and further increase the country’s competitiveness on a global scale.

The Liberal government plans a broad list of new spending measures that aim to address Canada’s need to compete for capital and investment across a range of sectors including mining, transportation, and climate-related industries. It’s also bolstering protections to improve the country’s intellectual property policies.

All told, Ottawa plans to spend $5.5 billion over the next five years in its efforts to help spur economic growth through investment in the high-tech space.

That represents less than 10 per cent of Ottawa’s total spending in this budget, according to Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada. And while the spending could help to improve lagging Canadian productivity, it may not be enough to spur more private-sector investment in the country’s economy.

“All of these programs often have good results but only on the small scale,” he said in an interview. “When we look at what draws future capacity in the economy, more productivity is nice but what draws the biggest attention is on the private sector investment front.”