Help bring Canadian research into the marketplace
It is a Canadian economic truism that we have been the proverbial hewers of wood and drawers of water. For 150 years, we have largely relied on the extraordinary abundance of our natural resources to build our economy, but only to the extent that we export those resources in a raw form for others to […]
Women in business: let’s go beyond tokenism and the status quo
In 1996, my first formal speech on women in business described the “female model of leadership,” and here we are still debating the same topic in 2017. Canada was one of the first signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in the early 1980s, and gender equality is […]
Globalization can be a force for good, if we make it so
Globalization is not the problem. How we have failed to manage it—including our failure to deal with inequality and improve opportunity for all—is the problem. The future of globalization depends on how well we can make it fairer and better. It’s hard to imagine a world in which trade does not occur, where ideas cease […]
Bite-sized health investments a worthy use of innovation dollars
As the president of a non-profit association working hard to improve the quality of cardiovascular patient care, the Trudeau government’s recent launch of its $950-million supercluster initiative has me feeling a bit conflicted. On the one hand, major federal investments with the potential to channel significant funding into the area of health and biosciences are […]
Let’s drop the false distinctions between discovery versus applied science
Last week, for two days in Ottawa the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Peru’s National Council of Science and Technology and Technological Innovation, in partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Centre, hosted the 6th Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council. The heads of 56 research funding agencies from 50 […]
Universities, industry, and research say substantial investments in research needed on regular basis
Post-secondary institutions and industry advocates are applauding the Trudeau government for rolling out millions in new funding for research since assuming office but say robust investments and other inducements are needed on a regular basis to ensure Canadian schools and businesses remain competitive on the global stage. In the 2016 budget, the Trudeau government earmarked […]
Liberals’ superclusters plan attracts interest from industry, skepticism from others
The Trudeau government’s $950-million plan to foster nodes of investment for burgeoning innovation fields is “rehashed corporate welfare” that will likely fail to generate promised returns, warns a government watchdog group. Aaron Wudrick, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, called the scheme a “terrible idea” that would fall flat because of the inability of […]
Government committed to supporting Canadian students, advanced research: Duncan
An acclaimed academic and former professor, Science Minister Kirsty Duncan has been tasked with the monumental task of recasting Canadian scientific policy. In the first full year of Liberal rule, her office oversaw the assembly of an expert panel led by former University of Toronto president Dave Naylor to study basic science in Canada. In its […]
Let’s put the ‘super’ in ‘supercluster’
These are exciting times for research and innovation in Canada. With a continued emphasis on innovation as a key to job creation, new areas of focus were announced in Budget 2017. With the additional input of the Naylor report and feedback from stakeholders working to improve research and innovation in our country, there are clear […]
Skilled trades must remain part of conversation on innovation, say advocates
As the Trudeau government seeks out avenues to bolster innovation, advocates are urging Ottawa to tap into the opportunities available in the skilled-trades field, arguing innovation isn’t restricted to the digital sphere. Bob Blakely, operating officer for Canada’s Building Trades Unions, which represents more than 500,000 construction workers, argued that not only have technological advancements […]
