The oil price crash in late 2018, coming in the wake of the 2015-16 downturn, left the economies of Saskatchewan and Alberta in a significantly weakened state just prior to the start of the pandemic. [...] There were a multitude of lessons learned in the creation and delivery of the RRRF, as the program was developed and launched in a very short period of time (weeks rather than the usual months), and continued to evolve to align with other federal pandemic relief programs. [...] Through strengthening relationships and expanded networks, strategic advocacy and project co- development, the Western Canada Growth Strategy has achieved the following results in 2020-21: Facilitated cross-government and external stakeholder stocktaking and priority-setting exercises at the onset of the pandemic with periodic updates to monitor progress and course correct the strategic directio. [...] The first is the Business Scale-up and Productivity (BSP) Program, which aims to accelerate the growth of firms and assist with the adoption and adaptation of new, innovative technologies that support scale up, productivity, 8 Actual results are based on the latest available data from the 2017 Statistics Canada survey of innovation and business strategy. [...] The actual and planned spending figures presented in the chart above reflect an increase in 2020-21 from the impact of funding received in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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