Your Taxes Fund AI Research. Here Is What We Do with It.

Every year, millions of dollars from your taxes go to AI research in Quebec and Canada. You’re paying for that. Not just for scientific curiosity — but what’s the return on investment?

Where does the money go? The big players

Mila (AI Research Lab) receives millions from the federal and provincial governments. Why? Because it’s recognized as important.
Université de Montréal, Polytechnique, McGill receive research grants for AI projects.
CFI, NSERC, Mitacs are government programs that fund research and industry-academia collaborations.

Overall figure? Probably $300-500 million per year in Quebec, just in direct public funding. Add private investments, and it grows.

OK, but what do we GET?

It’s not linear. Fundamental research takes 10-20 years before you see commercial results.

But look: Yoshua Bengio (publicly funded) invented the techniques that became deep learning. That created trillions in global value. Element AI, Scale AI, the labs — all of it stems from the research we funded.

It’s like investing in a research team to invent the lithium battery. It costs cash. But 30 years later, it changed the world and the economy.

Are we managing that money well?

Honestly? Partially. We do good research, clearly. But we miss connections between the lab and industry. Discoveries that could be commercialized get lost. Startups that could be funded aren’t.

The real question: are we spending so that American giants come poach our researchers? Or are we spending to create Quebec champions?

That’s not a reason to stop funding — it’s a reason to manage it better.

Want to understand how research funding works? Sherpa can help, or dig deeper on Laeka Research.