By Debbie Lawes

Science and commercialization have taken a quantum leap in political priority following the December 12 appointment of Joe Fontana to the newly created parliamentary secretary for Science & Small Business — one of three beefed up secretarial positions reporting directly to prime minister Paul Martin. The new position represents more clout, more resources and more responsibility than that of the secretary of state for science & technology position.

The parliamentary secretary not only has a direct link to the prime minister, he will also have a dedicated secretariat within the Privy Council Office, where he will work closely with Dr Arthur Carty (national science advisor) and Don Stephenson (assistant secretary to the Cabinet).

“Any scenario that combines a parliamentarian and a scientist in the form of Art Carty to work directly with the prime minister is a pretty important departure from the past. It strikes me as being a serious reorganization in this area on the part of the prime minister,” says Dr Cal Stiller, an advisor to Fontana and CEO of the Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund.

Dr Nils Petersen, VP research at Univ of Western Ontario, says the prime minister made a wise choice in moving the position from Industry Canada to the Privy Council Office. “The innovation strategy has to be implemented on a national level, between government departments. This is no longer just Industry Canada,” he says.

While pleased to hear that the government will be moving on the Innovation Agenda, Petersen cautioned that the job will not be easy. “We have the framework for research in place, but what’s needed are the tools for implementation of commercialization.”

REAFFIRMS MARTIN’S S&T PRIORITIES

In an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY on December 18, just two days after his first briefing with the prime minister on his new position, Fontana stressed that science, research and commercialization are top priorities for the government.

“I want to make sure all the stakeholders understand that science is one of (Martin’s) highest priorities,” says Fontana, MP for London North Centre who was first elected in 1988. “We have a mandate that is supported wholly by the prime minister, so there won’t be any interference by any other ministers. The link is direct between myself, Arthur Carty and the prime minister.”

As anticipated, one of Fontana’s goals is to transform the innovation agenda into an action plan that focuses on commercializing R&D and nurturing new businesses. His short-term goal is to have some component of this new action plan included in the next Throne Speech and Budget. Within a year, he hopes to have a national science policy in place.

Echoing earlier statements made by his boss, Fontana talked about the need to create a commercialization vehicle for small- and medium-sized businesses – an “Innovation & Enterprise Canada” possibly modeled on the not-for-profit Battelle Corp in Columbus OH. The Alberta Research Council is pushing a similar model, dubbed Innovation Canada or I-Can, a $500-million-a-year proposal to boost infrastructure and link research organizations across the country (R$, December 11/03).

The idea is to create a virtual network that links clusters of excellence from across the country – federal labs, universities, other research institutes and the private sector – to move ideas to the proof-of-principle and prototype stages.

Such an entity, Fontana says, would likely include an enhanced role, and perhaps even new money, for federal labs, which he describes as “one big scientific incubator for the country”.

“We need to look at how we can unleash the capacity and potential there,” he says, “perhaps by looking at better ways of partnering with government labs.” That process, he adds, will include compiling an inventory of the R&D being funded and conducted by government to identify what’s working and what isn’t.

THE SMALL BUSINESS EQUATION

In addition to science, Fontana is also responsible for small business issues. Back in his riding, the head of a London-based technology association describes the linkage as a natural one.

“If we’re talking about science being the growth engine of the knowledge economy, it’s those small- and medium-sized companies that will be the next big companies in the knowledge economy,” says Tech Alliance president Joseph Starcevic. “When science and small business come together, great things can happen.

The president/CEO of the London Economic Development Corp agrees. “There’s an enormous amount of science that gets commercialized that for a long period of time is in the context of small business,” says John Kime. “They’re faced by the same challenges that small businesses face – raising capital, finding management, meeting payrolls on a week-by-week basis.”

INDUSTRY SUPPORTIVE

An optimistic tone is also coming from Canada’s largest technology association. David Paterson, national director, public affairs at CATAAlliance, says he supports the creation of a parliamentary secretary for Science and Small Business. However, he says the focus should be on initiatives that bolster industrial research, including a competitive tax structure, investments in education and support for sales and marketing.

“On the innovation agenda, we said right from the beginning that Canada doesn’t need a whole bunch of fancy programs focused on R&D and innovation,” says Paterson. “What Canada needs is an environment that creates a hospitable atmosphere for innovation and research.”

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