Editorial - 21-4

It's been a busy past few months for S&T policy wonks. In Ottawa, bureaucrats in Industry and Finance have completed their work on the eagerly anticipated S&T Strategy. In British Columbia and Ontario, strategies are in various stages of development, with releases expected in the coming weeks and months. Quebec has already delivered its research and innovation to generally good reviews.

That governments are making the effort to develop strategies is an encouraging sign that S&T's importance is being recognized. How well these strategies work with each other and existing provincial strategies is another matter entirely.

The provinces and Ottawa have different constituencies to answer to and are at varying stages of their respective electoral cycles. Some governments place more importance than others on the power of S&T to enhance social and economic wellbeing. For Harper's Conservatives, an election looms in the near future and S&T isn't the biggest vote getter in a politicians' grab bag of goodies.

Yet there are signs that some level of coordination is emerging. At the most recent meeting of S&T DMs, those attending said there's a convergence of thinking, on strategies for enhancing innovation and economic prosperity happening.

One provincial DM was heard to exclaim that we are now in "an era of strategic plans" and asserted that the willingness to collaborate across geographic and political lines is increasing. We'll soon find out whether that new-found spirit of camaraderie translates into S&T strategies that complement and reinforce one another for the common good.