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2010 May 04 (Tue)
Research and Innovation Funding
Kevin questions the Minister of Advanced Education on the plans for research funding now that AHFMR is being replaced by Alberta Innovates.
896 Alberta Hansard Wednesday April 21, 2010
Dr. Taft: Mr. Speaker, this government dissolved one of Alberta’s most successful organizations, the Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. AHFMR is being replaced by something called Alberta Innovates. Last Friday the chairman of Alberta Innovates: Health Solutions sent out a memo openly admitting, “We do not know the exact nature of Alberta Innovates . . . new funding programs.” To the minister of advanced education: why did this government shut down AHFMR when it didn’t have a detailed plan for what would take its place?
Mr. Horner: Well, actually, Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member would peruse the rest of the letter, I think what he would find is that in this current year the competition that the fund did was actually $4 million more into health research than what happened last year. In fact, next year that amount and potentially even more, dependent upon the endowment, will also go out into the research programs of health research in the province of Alberta, more attuned to what the Premier of this province at the time, Premier Lougheed, wanted the Alberta heritage fund for medical research to do.
Dr. Taft: Well, Mr. Speaker, it’s a mess. Given that Alberta’s medical researchers have been told that the September application process for funds is being cancelled and the new funding structure won’t be in place until the fall, what are medical researchers who depend on applying for funding this September supposed to do? What’s your guidance to them?
Mr. Horner: Well, actually, Mr. Speaker, I believe – and I was looking for the confirmation – that the competition that closed today was for moving forward in the fall. What is at issue here are a number of salaried employees of the universities, if you will, not just in Edmonton but also in Calgary, that are potentially not going to win the award. Whether or not they would win an award the next year and whether or not they would win an award under the program that the new Alberta Health Solutions board is going to design is the question. The statement that the Alberta heritage fund for medical research is no longer there is a false one because it is. The statement that we’re going to continue to do what it used to do is a true statement.
Dr. Taft: Well, again to the same minister: given that this minister has been in charge of this reorganization for longer than a year, actually, why is it that according to the chairman of Alberta Innovates in this memo Alberta Innovates is only now embarking on a strategic planning process? How could we be so far behind?
Mr. Horner: Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member is forgetting a little bit of 18-month history here, and that is that we brought not only the Alberta heritage fund for medical research board but the University of Alberta’s representatives from the health and medical fields, we brought researchers from across the province, we brought researchers in the innovation community from across Alberta together 18 months ago, and this is the culmination of their recommendations. Alberta Innovates was not written by this ministry or this minister. It was written by all of the stakeholders within that research continuum.
Date: Tue May 4 10:06:08 MDT 2010
changed by: Rebecca
IP: 68.149.137.22
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