The Budget contains a number of spending
initiatives relevant to the voluntary sector.
Some of the more interesting include the following.
Innovation
The Budget puts significant emphasis on
innovation as an economic engine. One
important area of innovation in the Budget is the encouragement of researchers,
primarily at charities like major research universities, to commercialize pure and applied research findings. This is proposed to be accomplished in part
by encouraging businesses and academics to work more closely together.
Education
and Research
The Budget proposes specific targeted
research grants to various medical and other research charities. It also proposes more generally an additional
$500 Million over 5 years to the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Youth
Employment
The Budget proposes $50 million in
additional funding for youth employment.
Given that the examples of successful youth employment programs in the
budget materials all involve charities or non-profit organizations, this
measure may support significant youth hiring in the voluntary sector. Similarly, the Budget allocates $30 million
toward employment programs for people with disabilities.
Social Finance
The Budget confirms that the Federal
Government views social finance as being important and will continue to seek
ways to better support social capital flow, with details to be developed by the
Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development over the next few months.
