CANARIE poised to play leading role in shaping digital economy strategy

Reaction to the belated release of Digital Canada 150 (DC150) — billed as a national strategy for the digital economy — has been decidedly mixed. As many observers have noted, the Industry Canada document is heavy on past and current actions and light on future direction. While helpful in placing the S&T and innovation components of the digital economy in a larger perspective it offers little in terms of explicit or cohesive direction and is curiously tied into the nation's 150th anniversary in 2017.

If anything, DC150 demonstrates that, even in the absence of a strategy, the government has continued to make strategic investments in digital infrastructure (DI) and the digital economy (DE) (see chart). The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), for instance, has committed to loan $200 million to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) for digital technology adoption and invest a further $300 million in venture capital (VC) in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

There are also promising developments within the academic and business communities that are helping to move the country's digital aspirations forward, provided efforts are properly aligned and resourced.

The Leadership Council for Digital Infrastructure (LCDI), Compute Canada and CANARIE — Canada's key facilitator of national high-speed research and education — have released major documents that outline the nation's capabilities and the challenges of capturing the benefits of the rapid evolution towards a truly digital economy.

DI summit sets the stage

In a summary report stemming from a national summit held in Ottawa earlier this year, the LCDI — a voluntary collective of leaders representing key stakeholders — identified a clutch of underlying problems holding back Canada's ability to fully benefit from the advances in DI and DE: inadequate governance and coordination, lack of an overarching federal policy and planning framework and research data that are not treated as a national asset,

The LCDI calls for an alignment of all key stakeholders, the development of "concrete pilots and demonstration projects" and new mechanisms and metrics to assist in generating "requisite expertise, transferring this knowledge to DI users, and guiding DI users through the expanded DI universe".

For CANARIE, a recent stakeholder consultation on its 2015 mandate renewal identified several areas essential to moving Canada's DE to the next level: aligning efforts, predictable, long-term funding and integrating service delivery by connecting CANARIE infrastructure with Compute Canada facilities.

Dr Jim Ghadbane, CANARIE's president and CEO, was also a key participant in the LCDI summit. He says the DC150 is an encouraging step forward and describes Industry minister James Moore's announcement of the document as a powerful statement of support.

"Now we have a framework that would allow a strategy to be culled together and they can turn to organizations like ours for input," says Ghadbane. "We need a consolidated vision and we need the funding to do this."

CANARIE's national summit last year took a horizontal view for exploring options to align the various players in the DI and DE spaces.

"The summit looked at how to position Canada to benefit economically and socially in a rapidly evolving environment," says Kathryn Anthonisen, CANARIE's VP external relations. "What infrastructure and tools do we need to bring the stakeholders of the broad community together for better alignment?"

Ghadbane says that alignment should include even closer ties with the granting councils.

Canada must also identify future DI bandwidth requirements for areas of science that are experiencing exponential growth such as mining in the north, Canada's participation in the international Square Kilometre Array telescope project and genomics data which continue to grow at a staggering rate.

Ghadbane says DC150's announcement that broadband infrastructure will now be eligible for stimulus funding is a welcome development. He adds that CANARIE will continue to champion DI and DE and work closely with Industry Canada as it prepares its submission for renewed funding when its current mandate expires at the end of FY14-15.

"The community says we need more predictable funding and Industry Canada is getting the message loud and clear," he says. "It is quite engaged with us as we build our case."

BDC investments key

DC150's investments in BDC are among the most substantial, reflecting the government's increasing use of the bank as a strategic support mechanism for industry.

"The (BDC-related) initiatives are incremental to the financing available from BDC right now so it's new money if you will. It's going to build upon the efforts we've already undertaken in recent years," says BDC spokesperson Shawn Salewski. "With regard to the $200 million to support technology adoption, that would typically take the form of a term loan. For the $300 million in venture capital, that represents a cumulative investment by BDC through our ICT fund. That will happen via direct investments in IT companies or investments in graduates of business accelerators — we support six of them across the country — and also through some of the VC funds we're invested in."

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