REGINA — The Saskatchewan government has announced a funding increase going towards supporting more research and development internships in the province.
At the University of Regina Monday, the government announced that for 2025-26 there will be $1.58 million in funding to support Mitacs, up from $430,000 last year.
This will fund upwards of 301 research and development internships, for 36 new internships compared to last year.
According to a news release, Mitacs places top-tier talent in Canadian firms to support industry-academia collaboration, helping those students gain valuable industry experience and develop skills for high-quality jobs. An important part of is the Indigenous Pathways Initiative, which connects post-secondary interns to Indigenous businesses and organizations.
"Since the Government of Saskatchewan and Mitacs began partnership back in 2007, the province has provided $9.34 million to provide over 2000 internships to students,” Advanced Education Minister Ken Cheveldayoff said. “These opportunities continue to play an important role in Saskatchewan’s growth plan and our labour market strategy. These internships provide students valuable industry experience and expand their professional network by connecting them to businesses here in Saskatchewan.”
Mitacs CEO Dr. Stephen Lucas said the internships are based on the combination of a business or another organization “identifying a need that they would like to invest in, because each of our internships has 50 per cent of the money to support the student coming from the business or host organization, and the other 50 per cent from the funding of the government of Saskatchewan and the government of Canada.”
Based on those needs, he said, “we fully expect internships in the energy sector here, mining and critical mineral sector, in agriculture and agri-tech, in life sciences, including the development of new medical technologies, and in areas such as artificial intelligence in their application in some of those sectors, in the energy sector and in agriculture, for example.”
Lucas says the funding is “going to help students in Saskatchewan, businesses in Saskatchewan, and the province here, grow. Because our funding really contributes to enabling business needs to be matched with expertise in post-secondary institutions like University of Regina, and supporting through that students helping the business address those needs, invest in research, and grow and become more productive and competitive. So the funding is really to help the province help the students help the business."
Former Mitacs intern Mesa Kennedy, who has a psychology degree from First Nations University of Canada, said she got to learn about the different opportunities in the clean energy sector, and what type of jobs can come out of it. It has also been a confidence booster for her.
“Before this internship, I wouldn’t have known all these different job opportunities in the clean energy sector, but now I do. And another way that this has helped me was to grow my confidence and my speaking skills in public… like a year ago I probably would never imagine myself in the position I’m in today and being able to speak without my voice cracking in front of everyone. So that’s how it would help me and those departments there and I’m very grateful for that.”
Kennedy said she has been able to take that experience to a role on Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation, where she is the new assistant land manager.
