Perimeter to get federal funding
Posted Mar 21, 2011 02:58:50 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Waterloo’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is expecting some funding from tomorrow’s federal budget goodie bag.
Cambridge MP and Minister of State for Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear, hinted at $50-million in funding during an interview yesterday. But Goodyear is being coy about specifics of the funding ahead of tomorrow’s budget and requests through his office have so far gone unanswered.
In an e-mail to 570 News, Perimeter’s director of external relations and communications, John Matlock, says “funding renewal for 2012 and beyond would allow PI to continue its many research, training and outreach programs.”
Those programs would include such things as the Quantum to Cosmos Festival, public lectures and research into disciplines like quantum foundations and condensed matter.
Tim Mollison, spokesperson for the Tri-Cities Transport Action Group (TriTag) considers the funding for the Perimeter Institute complementary to transit, not competitive.
“The Perimeter Institute is one of the engines of the knowledge economy in Waterloo Region,” Mollison explains. “And we all know that workers in the knowledge economy are much more likely to leave their car at home and use transit as a greener form of getting to work.”
Mollison says TriTag is content with the up to $265-million dollars in funding the federal government has pledged to the region’s rapid transit plan, calling it “Ottawa’s share” of the infrastructure project.
The federal government also provided $50-million in funding to the Perimeter Institute in its 2007 budget, saying “the value of the centres of excellence is highest where there is a coordinated approach that brings together research institutions, governments and the private sector to set priorities and share resources.”
The commitment for that funding ends in 2011-2012 and Matlock says the sense is that this new funding will extend that which was put in place in 2007.
Since its inception in 1999, the Perimeter Institute has received more than $90-million in federal funding and more than $86-million in funding from the provincial government. That includes $10-million from each level of government to help expand PI through the creation of The Stephen Hawking Centre in 2009.
The budget is to be delivered tomorrow at 4 PM.
