Uncertainty surrounds status of Industry Canada's White Paper on innovation

June timeframe considered too short

Industry Canada (IC) is working to complete a White Paper on innovation for delivery to Cabinet in June that is rapidly shaping up as the key policy instrument in the government's attempts to propel Canada into the top five R&D-spending nations of the OECD. Directed by a committee of deputy ministers led by IC DM Peter Harder, the White Paper is being marshalled by Andrei Sulzenko, IC's assistant DM, and has spread beyond its departmental confines to envelop innovation-related initiatives of other science-based departments and agencies (SBDAs).

The White Paper is a critical component of the government's drive to dramatically increase R&D spending by all players, but other than grand pronouncements, there have been few prescriptive details on how the Liberal administration plans to proceed. Since the White Paper idea was hatched several months ago, IC officials have quietly consulted with a variety of stakeholders, including officials from several provincial governments, who have been posed a series of questions centred on the strategy to advance from 15th to 5th in R&D spending among the industrialized nations.

But many observers have pointed out that such a scenario demands a huge undertaking by every component of the emerging innovation system, and hinges on successfully engineering major increases both in the number of available skilled personnel for the knowledge-based economy and R&D expenditures by the private sector. Consequently, skills, commercialization, venture capital and research infrastructure will frame the White Paper's focus and contents.

The White Paper is being touted as the prescriptive policy document that's required to give life to the grand Liberal innovation strategy. Insiders say it will likely contain detailed projections for the government's top 10 innovation initiatives in the areas of information technology, life sciences, biotechnology, regulation, immigration, R&D, corporate governance and others.

Whether it will incorporate major S&T initiatives now being developed at the various SBDAs is a matter of conjecture. But sources have told RE$EARCH MONEY that a major life sciences initiative developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has now been sucked into the vortex surrounding the White Paper.

AAFC has been working since last summer on what's been described as a revolutionary strategy for life sciences as it relates to the agricultural sector, seeking ways to diversify crop usage with major increases in R&D spending for processes related to bioproducts and bioenergy. But the lead on the initiative has apparently shifted to IC. "It's been subsumed into an industry-wide process led by Industry Canada. The government is trying to come up with a horizontal approach to innovation," says one official. "The concept has been accepted by government at the highest levels but they have to work through what it all means."

COULD BE DOWNGRADED

But IC's ability to complete a White Paper document by June that articulates a bold vision and game plan for innovation is being seriously questioned. Some contend that the initiative may be downgraded to a framework document for consultation to flesh out the innovation themes outlined in the Speech From the Throne earlier this year (R$, February 12/01).

They point to the fact that senior bureaucrats and politicians have not publicly mention the White Paper, an indication that they're hedging their bets until a clearer picture emerges of just what it will contain and what it will recommend in the way of new initiatives.

"They have to have it written by the end of April or mid-May and they simply don't have time to take a bold new concept and get buy-in around town," says a senior government official. "It's not even clear if it's a White Paper anymore. Until I see a minister address it, who knows? It should be (IC minister) Brian Tobin or (Finance minister) Paul Martin."

In the meantime, the contents of the White Paper are still being formulated and it's almost certain to stress technologies and industry sectors that are known to be high on the government's priority list -biotechnology, advanced materials, nanotechnology, information technology, e-business and life sciences. It will also likely spell out the government's approach to the commercialization of research and international science and technology, as well as underlining the benefits of collaboration with provincial governments, the private sector and other S&T stakeholders. Federal S&T strategists are acutely aware that without substantial increases in spending by other players, it has little chance of meeting its lofty targets.

Life sciences R&D and commercialization will account for a significant portion of the document, given its probable role as the major economic driver of the 21st Century. Now viewed as the convergence of information and computing technology with advances in the biological sciences, life sciences and the commercialization of products and processes are seen as nothing less than holding the potential for a truly renewable economy. As such, it has had a major buy-in from industry, hence the apparent shift to IC for the strategy's final development.

"Don't assume that the AAFC initiative is being swallowed up by the White Paper," says one official. "Cabinet is still accepting proposals from various departments and the life sciences initiative has some pretty revolutionary stuff in it and requires lots of money."

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is also working up an initiative of its own, which is said to include a request for $170 million to implement an innovation strategy for resource-based industries such as for-estry and mining. Whether NRCan will continue to back the Canadian Neutron Facility is now in doubt, following a decision last month by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd to back away from the project.

A government official says it would be "amazingly short-sighted" if NRCan was to drop its CNF bid, given the reliance of the advanced materials research community on the facility.

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