TORONTO — Toronto-based business accelerator MaRS laid off 11 full-time staff Monday afternoon, and moved eight other salaried workers to contracts. It’s the second round of cuts at the government-subsidized organization since Alison Nankivell took the helm in March. 

The cuts mostly affected mid-level and junior employees in legal, IT and communications roles, Nankivell told The Logic. She said the layoffs are meant to eliminate staffing duplications across the organization’s three main divisions—real estate, venture capital and charity—as she seeks to operate the departments as one platform. “We’re trying to get those three pieces to be much more aligned in terms of how they share resources,” she said. 

Nankivell, who joined MaRS after more than a decade at the Business Development Bank of Canada, began making drastic personnel changes three months into her role at MaRS. The organization had 140 employees at that time, before Nankivell cut about 20 positions in early June, including several senior roles. The cuts were part of a plan to “ensure long-term sustainability of the organization,” Nankivell said in a statement at the time. The organization now has 101 staff, spokesperson Wendy Bairos told The Logic. 

Canadian business accelerators and incubators like MaRS have come under increased scrutiny recently over whether they make good use of the large sums of tax-payer dollars that fund them. The federal government published a report last month that showed middling outcomes for startups that enroll in accelerator programs.  

MaRS received more than $10 million in grants from the provincial government and over $9 million from the federal government in the 2023 financial year. The organization hasn’t yet published its results for the 2024 financial year, which ended March 31. 

One of Nankivell’s main objectives is to reduce MaRS’ reliance on government money, which currently makes up about two-thirds of its budget. She wants to get that down to 50 per cent. She claimed focusing MaRS on supporting companies in life science and climate tech could help attract more private financings and donations. “By being clear about that, we find it’s much easier to have conversations with corporates and with philanthropic [donors] to find areas of mutual interest,” Nankivell said. 

The layoffs will also help cut MaRS’ overall spending, which Nankivell said she wants to reduce from about $27 million or $28 million a year to $22 million. She said while government funding is one consideration in cutting costs, it’s not the only factor. “I would have made many of these changes simply to have greater efficiencies,” she said. “Why would you have inefficient allocation of resources in a resource-constrained environment?”