New Alberta R&D Subsidy

Alberta is getting a new government program to subsidize what SRED activities: the Innovation Employment Grant. From an Alberta Government website: 

How it will work

• Provide an 8% payment towards a corporation’s R&D spending in a given year, up to its base level of spending.
• A firm’s base level of spending will be determined by calculating its average qualifying R&D spending over the previous 2 years.
• Deliver a 20% payment towards a firm’s R&D spending that exceeds its base spending level.
• Focus on small and medium-sized firms by phasing out the grant for firms with between $10 million and $50 million in taxable capital.
• Provide benefits on up to $4 million in annual R&D spending.
• Be delivered through the corporate tax system.

This seems better for a company that starts doing R&D than for a company that has already been doing it. The latter gets told “You only get 8% of the costs unless they exceed last year’s. That will reward you for having helped the province last year.” Maybe someone there will realize the implications and perhaps the program will be changed.