Earlier this week an article was published in the Globe & Mail written by Tom Jenkins, the chief executive officer of Open Text, and chair of the Expert Panel - Review of Federal Support to Research & Development. "The charge given to the panel was to provide advice about the effectiveness of federal programs to support business and commercially oriented R&D, the appropriateness of the current mix and design of these programs, as well as possible gaps in the current suite of programs and what might be done to fill them."

The panel's recently released report entitled the Jenkins report outlines 6 recommendations addressing in Jenkins's words "We believe there is an urgent need for action. We believe the federal government should focus its efforts on growing innovative firms into larger enterprises, rooted in Canada, facing outward to the world and equipped to compete with the best."

The Globe & Mail article also sites an interesting example of how Canadian innovation can be lost if the appropriate funding is not available.

The full article can be seen on the Globe and Mail web site here.

Interestingly what does not appear to be touched on in the Jenkins report or mentioned in the article is an issue that has become more prevalent in the last year; the approach being taken by the CRA SR&ED reviewers when a review is required.

In listening to our EMC members many companies are finding that although they have had claims accepted in the past, CRA is now requiring more reviews, are being tougher in the reviews and in some cases there appears to be inconsistencies when assessing the eligibility of submitted projects and associated expenses.

To help address this issue,  EMC will be providing companies with information on how to best be prepared for a SR&ED CRA review. To facilitate this, EMC will hosting a series of Seminars to provide that exact information. If interested, check out the Upcoming Events on our EMC SR&ED page. These seminars will held in several locations across Ontario and the Maritimes.