Editorial - 29-10

If any industry deserves serious government support it's the clean tech sector. Yet as this issue's lead article illustrates, federal leadership is nowhere to be found. The sector – spanning many technologies and applications – has no home within the federal bureaucracy. It lacks both a champion and a clear national strategy.

In fact, between 2008 and 2013, Canada's ranking fell from 14th to 19th and its global market share slipped 41% from 2.2% to 1.3%, even as the sector racked up solid gains. The short answer to this conundrum is that competing nations are move aggressive and focused on expanding their clean tech industries than Canada.

Clean tech is just the latest tech sector to suffer from such benign neglect. While the current government continues to focus on natural resources extraction as the pillar of its economic policy, Canada's market share of the satellite, telecom, fuel cell and biotechnology sectors have declined.

According to a recent survey of C-Suite executives by the Gandalf Group, Canada's business leaders are increasingly concerned. The survey found a strong majority of respondents agreed that Canada's economy is too dependent on a few sectors and too reliant on natural resources. Executives singled out the need for focus more on clean tech, pipelines, computing, information and communications technology, aerospace, pharmaceuticals & biotechnology.

The situation isn't critical — yet. But the storm clouds forming on the horizon cry out for a comprehensive innovation policy in which Canada's promising knowledge-based sectors are recognized and encouraged.