Editorial - 16-16

Targets are useful tools. They help to focus debate, concentrate effort and provide a rallying point that everyone can get behind. But what happens when targets set by governments are unrealistic, as is the case for many of those created for Canada’s innovation performance?

It’s been nearly two years since Canada’s innovation targets were first announced. Since then, many have probed beneath the surface to determine exactly what’s what’s required to achieve them. The results are not encouraging.

For Canada to rank in the top five of the world’s R&D-performing nations by 2010, industry must triple its current performance. But private sector R&D has been hit by the tech slump and Nortel’s catastrophic implosion. Even if business and the other sectors had the necessary dollars, Canada almost certainly can’t find the number of new skilled personnel required to conduct all that new R&D.

The lead article in this issue examines another problematic target — Ottawa’s goal of creating 10 internationally recognized technology clusters in the next eight years. To many observers, it’s a stretch target that stretches credibility beyond the breaking point.

Throughout the so-called engagement process of the innovation agenda, the rhetoric (and the targets) of the government has remained virtually unchanged. It’s time for the government to sit down with the experts and determine just what Canada is able to achieve, rather than have the nation far short on nearly every count. The national summit would be the perfect place to return to reality and revise the targets so that they’re achievable.