In a National Post story entitled "Government funding revamp will aim to help Canadian businesses reap R&D benefits:, commentator John Ivison is suggesting,  based on a speech by the Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear, that  the federal government will reform the National Research Council and make it the focus of its technology commercialization policies.

The NRC, Ivison suggests, will provide expanded scientific, technical and financial support to businesses through IRAP, its Industrial Research Assistance Program.  

"The NRC will become the industrial economic engine of the nation - a powerhouse that will take ideas from businesses and universities and push them into the marketplace," Ivison quotes the minister. 

Ivison also forcasts the streamlining of SR&ED the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit that currently costs the government $3.5 billion a year in foregone revenue.