I think there are a few issues. For the discovery grant, for example, which is one I'm familiar with, if you look at some of the merit indicators for the proposal, they include things like socio-economic and environmental impacts. That's open to interpretation. You can imagine that if you are a progressive, you might say a proposal that seeks to reduce emissions will have beneficial impacts, whereas someone else, perhaps a more Conservative person, might say that something is better if it expands oil and gas production and leads to economic growth.
There's no agreed-upon definition of what that is. It's really open to a value judgment. Again, because many academics tend to be much more progressive, you tend to prioritize certain types of research over others.