On April 19, 2021, the Minister of Finance unveiled Budget 2021: A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth, and Resilience, a document that outlines the Canadian government’s plan for addressing economic recovery and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The budget plan appears to acknowledge the vital role that biotechnology will play in fighting current and future public health crises: the plan allocates a total of $2.2 billion over seven years in Canada’s domestic life sciences sector, which includes the following investment goals:

  •  $500 million over four years, starting in 2021-22, for the Canada Foundation for Innovation to support the bio-science capital and infrastructure needs of post-secondary
    institutions and research hospitals.
  • $250 million over four years, starting in 2021-22, for the federal research granting councils to create a new tri-council biomedical research fund.
  • $92 million over four years, starting in 2021-22, for adMare to support company creation, scale up, and training activities in the life sciences sector.
  • $59.2 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, for the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization to support the development of its vaccine candidates and expand its
    facility in Saskatoon.
  • $45 million over three years, starting in 2022-23, to the Stem Cell Network to support stem cell and regenerative medicine research.

The budget plan also proposes investments to promote accessibility to Canadian intellectual property services. Those investments include:

  • $90 million, over two years, starting in 2022-23, to create ElevateIP, a program to help accelerators and incubators provide start-ups with access to expert intellectual property services.
  • $75 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, for the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program to provide high-growth client firms with access
    to expert intellectual property services.

The budget is welcome news for Canada’s life science sector. The planned investments signal a renewed commitment to scientific research and the increased accessibility of intellectual property services will encourage innovation across a number of research communities.