Flaherty reaffirms funding for MIP

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Flaherty1.jpg” caption=”Finance Minister Jim Flaherty visited the McMaster Innovation Park today to reaffirm the federal government’s $6-million funding commitment to relocate the CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory to the MIP. Photo by Rod Paget. Below, President George shakes hands with the Finance Minister. Photo by Glenn Lowson.”]Finance Minister Jim Flaherty paid a visit to the McMaster Innovation Park (MIP) today to reaffirm the federal government's Budget 2007 commitment to provide $6 million to relocate the CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory to the MIP.

“By relocating this laboratory to the McMaster Innovation Park, we will attract new companies to Canada, create highly skilled jobs and establish a world-class site for research in material sciences,” said Flaherty. “In the modern global economy, the most successful nations are those that best combine people, skills, new ideas and advanced technologies to create a competitive edge, and that's exactly what we are doing here at McMaster University.”

The $6 million is in addition to the $40 million that was allocated in Budget 2006 to help CANMET reposition itself as a leader in research for the steel, automotive materials and other metal manufacturing industries.

The CANMET laboratory is the nation's leading materials research facility, supporting excellence and innovation in the Canadian economy. It is being relocated to the heart of Canada's automotive, steel and other metal manufacturing industries, and close to other universities and centres of excellence. As part of the McMaster Innovation Park, the laboratory will contribute to the development and commercialization of research into new and marketable products and services.

“CANMET's presence at the Park represents a turning point for Canadian manufacturing and the research community,” said McMaster University president Peter George. “It has the unique opportunity to create synergies among business, industry, academia and government, making Canada the global leader in materials and manufacturing research.”


McMaster Innovation Park president Zach Douglas added, “This is tremendous news for the Park, the community and the country. CANMET, as the Park's anchor tenant, will be a magnet for other research facilities that want to be close to the action. It will trigger an enormous economic boost for our region.”