A professor directs research with students in a laboratory at McGill University in Montreal in August, 2022.Roger Lemoyne/The Globe and Mail

Vincent Custode is the director of policy at Polytechnics Canada, a national association of polytechnic institutions.

Another federal budget has come and gone and, while there are investments worth applauding, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Canada missed the bigger picture.

Renewed investments in infrastructure and improvements to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credits are welcome. The proposed “super-deduction” to spur capital investment is also a step in the right direction.

These measures signal a government focused on productivity and competitiveness.

The budget also reaffirms its support for discovery research, an important foundation for scientific progress. But discovery alone won’t fix Canada’s productivity challenge. To compete globally, we need to better connect research to real growth.

That connection was missing in this year’s budget.

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