Innovation Alberta faces a 30% drop in funding

CALGARY – The province of Alberta will cut funding to Alberta Innovates by nearly 30 percent over the next two years — a roughly $60-million annual reduction that CEO Michael Mahon called “fairly significant.”

Alberta Innovates funds research and innovation. It has existed for more than a century under several configurations and names, such as Alberta Research Council.

The provincial government is the organization’s primary source of funding. The 2025-26 budget says that a $53-million operating funding cut is coming next year. The overall budget is about $250 million.

“My job is to make sure that Albertans are getting the best bang for their buck with their tax dollars,” Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish (pictured) said last month in an interview with CBC News.

Glubish said his ministry and Alberta Innovates are reviewing all of the agency’s programming to decide what’s working and what isn’t. Some agency programs are also coming to a planned end, he said.

Innovators say the uncertainty at the agency comes at a time when global economic instability and trade chaos has made it harder to find investors to back new products that could help people.

Despite the looming cuts, Mahon sounded optimistic about the organization’s future as it was preparing to unveil a new strategic direction last week.

“Innovation evolves, our ecosystem changes, and so our programs need to change in response to that,” said Mahon on his first day as permanent CEO, after serving in an interim capacity since last summer. “Our programs are really meant to respond to that evolution and to ensure that the funding that we provide is focused in areas that really are areas that are going to help push and pull Alberta along.”

In an email, Jonathan Gauthier, press secretary to Technology and Innovation minister Nate Glubish, noted some of the cuts were tied to “ongoing fiscal sustainability initiatives” and others to “natural conclusion of project-specific grant commitments.” He said the innovation agency remains “a key partner” in implementing the Alberta Technology and Innovation Strategy.

He said the agency’s new strategic plan “focuses on empowering Alberta’s innovators, maintaining provincial leadership and driving economic growth in key, high-impact areas.

“In response to these changes, Alberta Innovates will focus on high-impact projects aligned with government priorities, potentially winding down less impactful programs or merging cross-functional ones.”