Intellectual capital is Canada’s most important natural resource
COVID-19 is taxing the world’s health-care systems like never before, and Canada is no exception. During this challenging time, one of the many lessons being relearned is that we need to keep mobilizing our intellectual capital so that we can continue to develop innovative products and solutions that benefit Canada and the global community. Globally, […]
Canada cannot afford a knowledge recession
As countries around the world continue to grapple with new dangers presented by COVID-19, Canada must also work to stave off a danger of a different kind: a knowledge recession. Last year ended with more hope than we have had in a while. With vaccines starting to roll out, it was possible to imagine a […]
New innovation minister should prioritize investment in digital infrastructure to ensure economic recovery
Congratulations to François-Philippe Champagne on his new role as minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, one of government’s most important portfolios, at a crucial time for the Canadian economy. The past year has not been without challenges for all Canadians and all levels of government. The challenges before Minister Champagne and the rest of the […]
Carr’s cabinet post praised by Prairie stakeholders, but experts and MP wary of road ahead
After recovering from a blood cancer diagnosis that forced him out of cabinet after the 2019 election, Jim Carr is back in the new post as the special representative to the Prairies. The title is old—Mr. Carr has held it since the election—but the spot in cabinet is new. Prior to re-joining cabinet, Mr. Carr was […]
Finance Committee chair Easter top non-cabinet-MP target for lobbyists in 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic kept MPs away from Ottawa for most of the year, but that didn’t stop lobbyists from meeting with MPs to try and influence both the government’s and the opposition’s agenda. Liberal MP and House Finance Committee chair Wayne Easter was lobbied 190 times in 2020, the most for an MP not serving […]
Canada well-positioned to both buy and sell cleantech products
Canada is making ambitious plans to tackle climate change. While the rest of us were just trying to reach the finish line before the holidays, the federal government was busy budgeting for green stimulus and making plans to meet our Paris Agreement commitments by increasing the carbon tax and making large outlays on clean infrastructure. […]
New small modular reactor action plan a key step for new technology’s growth amid ‘incredible demand,’ says industry group
Canada’s new Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Action Plan is a significant step for the emerging technology’s potential place in the country’s energy grid, say stakeholders who are pushing the government to embrace “first-mover” advantage in the nascent domestic and international market. The plan was released on Dec. 18, 2020, by Natural Resources Canada and builds […]
Antitrust concern about big business underestimates customers’ power, and benefits
The size of a business is generally a reflection of its success at satisfying a lot of customers in a very productive way. Size, however, does not make businesses less vulnerable. Industry leaders such as the GAFA companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) were only recently the disruptors of the markets they entered. Soon enough, […]
Resource sector making progress on reconciliation
The resource sector is moving hand in hand with Indigenous peoples in Canada and the outcomes will be theirs to own together—literally. From early equity to preferred procurement, Canada’s resource sector has been making strides toward implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 92 (CTA 92), which implores the private sector to bring […]
Is Canada’s oil sector an appropriate target for industrial policy support?
Canadian discussions on the future of oil quickly descend to partisan polemics, with the environmental community arguing that climate change realities mean we need to leave it in the ground, and the oil patch arguing that it’s better that we produce it than our unethical global competitors. It’s hard to see a bridge between those […]
