Canada's ability to generate key science, technology and innovation indicators threatened by budget cuts

A funding shortfall at Statistics Canada is undermining its ability to generate new and existing data sets for science, technology and innovation (STI) and threatening Canada's preeminent position in the field internationally. The critical situation comes to light as Dr Fred Gault retires after nearly a quarter century as head of the Agency's Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division (SIEID) that drove the development of a system of STI indicators which have had a major influence internationally.

The most recent survey in jeopardy is the biannual biotechnology development and usage survey — the longest running survey of its kind in the OECD. The biotechnology survey also includes nanotechnology, which is a fundamental emerging technology platform that is not well understood.

Also falling by the wayside are a number of surveys associated with the former Connectedness agenda of the previous Liberal government. The most prominent of those unable to go forward is the survey of electronic commerce and technology.

After years of soliciting funds from within StatsCan and externally from other departments and the provinces, SIEID's budget is set to decline from $6 million in FY07-08 to $4.5 million for FY08-09. That places Gault's successor — Paula Thomson — in the unenviable position of identifying and securing new funding sources or downsizing staff.

"Her first challenge is to deal with some mix of the budget and the staff because if we don't add some more money to the budget we're going to have to release staff," says Gault, adding that Thompson has a strong track record of dealing with external clients. "We spent over a decade building up the knowledge to do what we do and it is embedded in the 60 people (in the division). If we start reducing those people, that knowledge goes and it will take a decade to get in back."

Like many surveys conducted by the SIEID, the biotechnology survey was funded by sources outside StatsCan, in this case through the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy. But that Industry Canada program was cancelled last year, leaving the survey in limbo. Gault says Industry Canada is working to establish a consortium of federal departments and agencies willing to pool resources to launch another survey this year. In the meantime, a survey on bioproducts and functional foods will go forward with separate funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The surveys associated with the Connectedness agenda largely focused on outputs, namely the penetration of various electronic communications technologies in the business and home communities. As STI indicators have evolved, researchers have come to acknowledge that the results of inputs such as R&D are as important as the funding and industry development that produced them. This understanding has been slow to permeate the policy and political levels, however, making it difficult to garner support for their statistical tracking.

"You can argue for R&D (statistical funding) because R&D people understand it's a good thing … The government supports the doing of it through SR&ED (the federal R&D tax incentive program) and a number of other good programs. So clearly it's important and the statistics, while not well supported, at least are there," says Gault. "What we have difficulty doing — which is something I've never quite understood — is getting strong support for technology use surveys, use and practices. For the advanced technology survey which is in the field at the moment, we had to fund it by going to the provinces and a couple of departments. We also put a lot of our own resources into it."

StatsCan's expansion of STI indicators began in the early 1990s when a new statistical program was recommended by an advisory committee established at Gault's urging. The program was incorporated into the 1996 federal S&T strategy along with an infusion of resources that led to a systems approach to STI and growing international recognition.

"Delivering that in 1998 was a high point for the program ... we developed the framework and expanded our statistics and it's guided us ever since," says Gault.

Enhancing Canada's reputation in the global arena has been Gault's chairmanship of the National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI), a subsidiary of the OECD's Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy. Gault has chaired NESTI for the past six years during which time Ottawa played host to the Blue Sky Forum — an international gathering to to further the development of STI indicators that capture the rapidly evolving nature of innovation.

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