For Immediate Release
August 21, 2007

MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT INVESTS IN COSMIC RESEARCH

Funding Will Attract Top International Researchers To Northern Ontario

SUDBURY – A major provincial investment is helping Ontario researchers investigate dark matter.

“We are investing in the knowledge and skills of Ontarians – our greatest asset – because we know that this is the path to a prosperous Ontario,” said Premier and Minister of Research and Innovation Dalton McGuinty. “By supporting important research initiatives like this one, we are attracting the best and brightest researchers and contributing to a stronger economy and a better quality of life for Ontario families.”

The province is investing a total of $8.73 million – $5.6 million through the Ontario Research Fund and $3.13 million through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund – to expand the SNOLAB research facility. Located two kilometres underground at CVRD Inco’s Creighton Mine near Sudbury, provincial funding will help researchers build a cryopit, a large cavern to store the low-temperature liquids and gases needed to conduct large-scale cryogenic experiments for the next generation of research into dark matter particles. Cryogenics is the study or production of very low temperatures.

“The initial Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment was internationally renowned, and focused world-wide attention on the unique Sudbury facility and its team of scientists,” said Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci, who made the announcement in Sudbury today. “This new project represents an exciting opportunity to strengthen Ontario’s important research and innovation sector by expanding the world’s foremost underground lab for particle physics and astrophysics research.”

By finding new ways to view elusive dark matter particles, future SNOLAB researchers hope to learn new information about what the Universe is made of and what holds it together, placing Ontario at the epicentre of global science and future technological advances.

“By acting now to expand the lab facilities, we’re seizing a vital opportunity to solidify Canada’s position as a world leader in the field of astroparticle physics,” said Dr. David Sinclair, SNOLAB Director of Facility Development. “As a result, for the foreseeable future SNOLAB will be the largest, deepest and cleanest facility available for this type of research.”

Investing in research and innovation is the latest example of how the McGuinty government is working to strengthen Ontario’s economy.  Other initiatives in Northern Ontario include:

• Introducing the $160-million Ideas to Market strategy to grow new start-ups and drive innovative discoveries rapidly from the lab to the marketplace
• Investing more than $104 million toward the development of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, with campuses in Sudbury and Thunder Bay
• Initiating a Growth Plan for Northern Ontario, to be developed under the Places to Grow Act, to encourage the long-term economic growth of northern communities.

“By helping our top new researchers make important discoveries, we are turning Ontario into an innovation powerhouse,” said Premier McGuinty. “By investing in research and innovation and the skills and knowledge of our people, Ontario will remain the place to be for years to come.”

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