The Short Report - April 17, 2019: Indigenous innovation, Ontario budget, scaling network

Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) announced more than $1 million over four years for a new Social Purpose Institute (SPI), launched by United Way of the Lower Mainland. The initiative aims to promote economic growth and social purpose in British Columbia.  - Newswire

The governments of Canada and Quebec are investing $8.4 million in Uniboard Canada Inc. to enable the fibreboard manufacturer to develop a system that will recover heat and redirect it to the fibre drying system. - Newswire

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) will invest $4.4 million in Saltworks Technologies Inc. to support development of a wastewater disposal technology for the oil and gas industry, called Airbreather. - Newswire

Three innovation hubs in Ontario are joining forces to implement a business scaling network along the Waterloo–Toronto–Ottawa corridor, called the Scale-Up Platform. Communitech, MaRS Discovery District and Invest Ottawa will share a $52.4 million investment from FedDev Ontario to support 30 companies in southern Ontario to achieve revenue objectives of $100 million or more by 2024. - Newswire

The National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) announced some of the first projects to be funded through its $700 million allocation from Budget 2018: Applanix Corporation ($2 million), for navigation of autonomous vehicles; Opus One Solutions ($1.6 million), for distributed energy integration; and Hibar Systems Limited ($2 million), for lithium-ion battery manufacturing. - Newswire

Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED) has awarded $4 million through its Regional Economic Growth through Innovation (REGI) program to the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi's Centre d'entrepreneuriat et d'essaimage (CEE-UQAC) to develop a new bioproducts processing and conversion centre (CTVB) in Saguenay. - Newswire

Minister of Small Business Mary Ng announced up to $2.5 million for SheEO — an organization that invests in women-led ventures — through the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) Ecosystem Fund. - Newswire

Two projects in Western Canada will receive a combined $2.7 million investment from Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) to increase trade in the technology sector: $2.6 million to the Information and Communication Technologies Association of Manitoba (ICTAM) for its Tech West Canada initiative, and $100,000 to virtual reality animation company Flipside XR through the Women Entrepreneurship Fund. - Newswire

Seamus O’Regan, Minister of Indigenous Services, launched the Indigenous Homes Innovation Initiative to improve housing conditions in Indigenous communities by funding Indigenous-led projects to build effective and culturally-inspired living spaces. - Net NewsLedger

Canadian Heritage announced 20 projects that will share $7.8 million in funding through the new Creative Export Canada program. - Newswire

In its 2019-2020 budget, Ontario's Progressive Conservative government allocated $782 million to the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, representing a 20 percent budget cut. The budget includes the creation of a dedicated talent stream to attract high-skilled workers to Ontario's tech sector, as well as plans to continue consultations on its first-ever data strategy. - BetaKit

Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan announced $80 million to establish eight new Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC), along with new requirements for the tri-agency initiative to address a lack of equity, diversity and inclusion. - Newswire