Just a few quick thoughts on the federal budget (I’m skipping the gory details, but I do encourage you to read our team’s full budget summary, available here.)

1) When can we all publicly admit that the PMO has become the fourth granting council? This habit of handing out money to specific scientific projects outside the tri-council structure is becoming dangerously entrenched. Sure, I’m happy for McMaster and their new $6.5 million health outcomes project, but is it good public policy to have the impetus from this come directly from the PMO? Sometimes it seems as if we’re heading towards a U.S.-style earmarks system and I can’t see that being good for the country.

2) Last night’s budget was only the third since 1995 not to contain specific measures for students and/or apprentices. Yes, really. But two of those have been since 2010. I think we may be entering a new era here, and student leaders really might not like it.

3) This government is game to tackle tough problems directly. For years, we’ve tried to make up for terrible private-sector innovation results by bulking up on research in public universities. The conservatives seem to prefer trying to solve the problem more directly by monkeying with private sector incentives. I’m not sure that what they’re proposing will work, but the clarity of the thinking is admirable.

4) It’s the economy, stupid. The first few Conservative budgets were almost indistinguishable from Liberal ones in the way money was generously doled out on PSE-related loans, grants and tax credits. But it is a colder world now. The federal government is viewing the sector with a steelier eye and asking hard questions about how PSE investments can best help the economy as a whole. That means a whole lot more industry linkages, be it for research or internships.

Basically, the litmus test for an acceptable subsidy has become stricter and is now phrased in more nakedly utilitarian terms. It’s not just ideology at play here, either – prolonged economic slumps do this to governments of all stripes. But the bottom line is that the Ottawa landscape has changed a great deal, and stakeholders need to adapt.