Critics have questioned the Harper government's austerity claims
partly because the environmental science programs that were cut
receive so little funding. For instance, Experimental Lakes Area
cost the government just $2 million and the National Round Table
just $5 million, all from a roughly $11 billion science and
technology budget. At the same time, sectors expected to spur
industry innovation like engineering and life sciences saw a
boost from the law. For example, the Canada Foundation for
Innovation, a nonprofit corporation that funds things like
research equipment and labs, will receive $500 million over five
years beginning in 2014. Power, the spokesperson for Industry
Canada, wrote in an email that while "discovery-driven basic
research" (which environmental science falls under) remains an
essential government priority, "we also believe in the
transformative potential of science in the marketplace and the
need to improve our business expenditure on research and
development." "In today's modern econo