Canada’s superclusters: a step in the right direction—but will we seize the opportunity?
The Innovation Canada’s $950-million Superclusters Initiative gives Canada an opportunity to improve its longstanding poor innovation performance. By taking a more direct funding approach and putting the central focus on firm-led innovation, the superclusters initiative seeks to deliver economic growth and increase employment. Yet significant challenges and hurdles remain if the initiative is to truly […]
Let’s hard-wire inclusion into Canada’s innovation economy
Ministers are on the road this fall, talking to Canadians about what the next federal budget should include. One of the key questions being asked is how to put Canada on a path to “inclusive growth.” By many economic indicators, Canada is excelling. Unemployment is low and Canada led the G7 in real GDP growth […]
To get the benefits of innovation, Canada needs a national effort
Canadian efforts to extract social and economic benefit from innovation have not only been late but tepid. For too long, pundits and policy-makers considered innovation manna that falls from heaven without any strategy or government involvement. We have focused on attracting jobs and getting access to foreign technology rather than on building a Canadian innovation […]
Strategic research investments vital to building workforce of the future
Later this fall, the world will applaud the latest Nobel Prize recipients, marvelling at the foresight of researchers who dreamed big and changed the world. What goes on quietly in university labs and libraries today may only be celebrated in 30 years—as we see with the Nobel—once the impacts are known. Consider John Polyani’s Nobel […]
Clean-tech innovation: why are there still barriers?
The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been positioning itself as promoting clean growth and innovation. The “superclusters” may prove to be very effective enablers of innovative technologies. At this stage, they remain experimental. But the easy things to promote innovation and clean-tech are still untouched. It is hard to know why. It is […]
Canada should become a global leader in data-driven economy
Innovation in digital technologies has led to a rapidly changing digital landscape for Canadians. From consumer concerns about personal data collection, unawareness about the scope of disruptive technologies, to the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), the new digital economy is quickly changing the way that we learn, work, shop and live. Coupled with technology evolving […]
Innovation Policy Briefing
There’s another pipeline we need to talk about
There’s only one word running through my mind these days: pipeline. I’m not referring to Kinder Morgan, oil development or Canada’s latest acquisition. The pipeline I am referring to is the one that we must continually replenish in our health sciences sector. Given Canada’s considerable investments in research and development and in health care, why […]
Stakeholders divided on need for renewable targets in new clean fuel standard
Some stakeholders say the current rules around renewable fuel have a place in Canada’s anticipated clean fuel standard, while others say that the government should stick to mandating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but allow producers to reach those targets their own way. “[The government] should not in any way, shape or form dictate how […]
Access to capital, government red tape among top barriers cited by biotech firms, survey finds
Access to capital remains the biggest challenge for Canada’s biotechnology sector, even as most of its companies have tapped into federal programs offered to startup companies, according to a new report released on Sept. 24. While the industry has shown signs of promising growth, a survey polling 208 biotechnology companies in Canada found 57 per […]
