The fate of federal science and technology and innovation policy has become clouded with the announcement by prime minister Paul Martin of his new Cabinet and new slate of ministers of state and parliamentary secretaries. Many in the S&T community were encouraged yet perplexed by the appointments, which featured a solid new Industry minister but did not include a parliamentary secretary for science and small business.

It was little more than seven months ago that Martin emerged from the Liberal leadership convention, naming Dr Arthur Carty as his national science advisor and Joe Fontana as science and small business secretary. They were to work together in conjunction with the Industry minister to move the innovation agenda forward. But Fontana has been promoted to full minister (housing and labour) and the position is now apparently vacant.

“The prime minister did not appoint anyone at this time but the position is not abolished,” says a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office. “I expect someone to be appointed in due course.”

The choice of David Emerson as Industry minister is being greeted with mixed reviews. His business credentials are solid enough — he was recently the president and CEO of Canfor Corp, a BC-based forestry firm with billions in annual revenue. But his political and academic background is being questioned. In the 1970s and 1980s he was a senior civil servant under the Social Credit government of the day — a government with a very different political stripe than the federal Liberals. And his PhD in economics from Queen’s Univ is of the neo-classical variety, which is mute on innovation (see back page).

What this all means is a matter of intense speculation, with some pointing to the impact of an inherently unstable government on governance and others confident that the innovation file is in good hands with Carty and his team.

“Carty is a superb choice and his office is being staffed in a way that’s appropriate,” says Lynda Leonard, VP communications and research for the Information Technology Association of Canada. “I would not interpret this Cabinet as the diminution of science and innovation but we’re an optimistic association. We liked the last Budget and the Speech from the Throne and I would be surprised if Martin forgets innovation.”

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