2022 Ontario Budget: Supporting innovation and life sciences

On April 28, 2022, the Ontario government tabled Bill 126, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes. Given the outcome of the most recent provincial election on June 2, 2022, it is likely that the previously tabled budget will be reintroduced in the coming months. The draft budget includes proposals to support innovation in Ontario, and in particular the life sciences industry.

What you need to know

Highlights of the April 2022 budget include:

• A proposed investment of $58 million over three years to support the creation of Intellectual Property Ontario, a resource to help postsecondary institutions, researchers and companies maximize the value of their IP and strengthen their capacity to grow and compete in the global market.
  • Intellectual Property Ontario will offer strategic advisory services to help clients develop effective IP strategies, provide legal solutions to support the protection of their IP, and help local innovators, researchers, and organizations capitalize on their IP. With this investment, the government’s goal is to keep the economic and commercial benefits of that IP in Ontario.
• A rebrand of the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation as Venture Ontario, and increased venture capital funding for high-potential companies.
  • Venture capital funding will increase from $100 million to $300 million, which will enable the agency to make an additional $200 million in investments under the Venture Ontario Fund II, focusing on building Ontario’s competitive advantages in key sectors, including the life sciences.
  • The added funding is expected to leverage an additional $1.8 billion for Ontario-based and -focused venture capital fund managers.
• The launch of a new life sciences strategy, the first of its kind in over a decade, called “Taking Life Sciences to the Next Level”. The strategy outlines:
  • the government’s plan to build and help grow the life sciences sector and secure new investments in next-generation health technologies, vaccine manufacturing and medicines; and
  • the government’s goal to increase employment in the biomanufacturing and life sciences sector to 85,000 workers in high-value jobs by 2030. This will be a 25% increase from 2020.
  In support of the new strategy, the government will invest $15 million over three years in a new Life Sciences Innovation program. This program will help provincial small and medium enterprises in the life sciences industry to develop and scale up the commercial potential of therapeutics and medical and digital technologies (e.g., cell therapies, mRNA vaccines, artificial intelligence applications to improve diagnosis and treatment of disease).
• Increasing Ontario-made personal protective equipment (PPE) to shore up domestic production of critical supplies, to prepare Ontario for future emergencies. The province is now producing a wide variety of both PPE and critical supplies and equipment in Ontario. Over 92% of the government’s forecasted PPE spend for the next 18 months will come from Ontario or Canadian sources.
• As part of Ontario’s supply chain strategy, led by Supply Ontario, the province also plans to build strategic domestic production and supply chain capacity for critical goods and services, such as the domestic production of nitrile gloves.