Biotechnology Policy Briefing
How should we grow our economy? Statistics Canada is looking for answers
TORONTO—Whoever wins the September 20 election will face a big task: creating the good jobs and good health Canadians need and want. While Conservative leader Erin O’Toole confidently declares in his party’s election platform that “Canada’s best days lie ahead,” that will only be true if we get our policies right. How can Canada move […]
AI innovation needs federal attention, say industry players, lawmakers
The growing commercial use of artificial intelligence may increase the wealth gap in Canada, according to a recent report from Statistics Canada, but some who work in the field and a few Canadian lawmakers say it will boost worker productivity and create jobs, at least in the short-term. Canada’s AI sector has grown significantly, creating […]
Canada needs to pick up the pace when it comes to fostering innovation, research and development
TORONTO—When it comes to innovation you might call us the snail nation. We do make progress, but at a pace sometimes so slow it is barely noticeable. For example, we are still struggling to scale up our small companies into Canadian-controlled and headquartered companies that can prosper on the world stage, providing good jobs and […]
To boost Canadian innovation, resist the lure of Silicon Valley
TORONTO—Kitchener-Waterloo made a big deal out of attracting Google to set up a large R&D branch plant in an old industrial building there. Not to be outdone, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the early days of his government, made a high-profile visit lauding Google’s expanding R&D branch plant. He wanted Google to play a bigger […]
COVID-19 a wake-up call for Canada, international community for pandemic preparedness
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada has focused on providing Canadians safe and effective vaccines and treatments, and on building back better as we begin to look towards recovery. To accomplish this, we have deployed short-term strategic solutions while also outlining a long-term vision for our recovery. To that end, we know that […]
Canada needs a publicly owned facility to produce medicine and vaccines
As the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed, Canada’s economy has become more fragile and less resilient than it was, due to decades of government neglect of our domestic manufacturing sector as supply chains have been allowed to be outsourced. While many have raised these concerns for years, this public health crisis demonstrated to everyone the dangers […]
We need to move ‘broadcasting’ and ‘copyright’ from Canadian Heritage, to Innovation, Science and Economic Development: McOrmond
I’ve been active in related areas of policy since the 1990s, so have watched the damage caused by the Department of Canadian Heritage, created in 1993 and given royal assent in 1995. This is a department whose minister was granted jurisdiction over “Canadian identity and values, cultural development, heritage, and areas of natural or historical significance […]
Canada’s future depends on connectivity
As Canada begins to emerge from the third, and hopefully last, wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many lessons that have been learned over the past year and half. Among these lessons, the pandemic has fostered a greater appreciation for the fixed and wireless broadband networks that allowed Canadians to stay connected, conduct business, […]
Our parliamentary committees should operate better, especially now
OTTAWA—These have not been the finest days for the Parliament of Canada. A Member of Parliament urinated on camera during a non-public House session. This, after he was caught naked on camera during a House session a few weeks earlier. Recently, Mark Carney, vice chair of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., appeared before the House of […]
