Support for science, technology and innovation seen as good omen for future

Speech from the Throne

There was more than the usual anticipation leading up to last week’s Speech from the Throne, the Liberal government’s first as a minority government and one that would indicate any change in the priority for science and technology (S&T). When it was over, trepidation was generally tempered with vague reassurances that S&T still held a prominent place on Ottawa’s agenda.

Under the heading of a strong economy, the SFTT outlined a five-point strategy (see chart) that largely reiterated the thrust of the 2002 national Innovation Strategy, now branded as the 21st Century Economy (see page 4). Basic points include skills training, a continuation of basic research funding, more early-stage venture financing, regulatory changes, targeted sectoral and regional development and more effective trade and investment promotion.

In the area of the environment, the SFTT once again called for collaboration with the private sector to commercialize new environmental technologies and reiterated its intent to use most of the proceeds from the sale of its stake in PetroCanada to fund such activities. Also restated is the pledge to develop comprehensive approaches for increasing production and use of clean, renewable energies and promote greater energy efficiency. Despite the lack of detail or new initiatives, reaction to the SFTT has been optimistic.

“The 21st Century Economy and innovation got a good deal of coverage. People had been worried that science was disappearing from the scene so I’m glad to see it,” says Dr Arthur Carty, national science advisor (NSA) to the prime minister. “The government is clearly still interested in building up science and capitalizing on it.”

Carty agrees that the content of the SFTT focusing on commercialization is already known, particularly the emphasis on fostering risk capital investment and ensuring a competitive tax regime. He adds that commercialization initiatives will be getting underway “in the next few months”, pointing to the last Budget’s funding of the Business Development Bank of Canada and pilot commercialization projects for universities and government laboratories.

“Industry Canada has made some progress (on the pilot programs). An external advisory board has been set up and will meet shortly,” he says. “There will also be more to come when it gets closer to February.”

The SFTT’s reference to the NSA — in the context of assessing the effectiveness of previous S&T investments as well as the challenge of better integrating federal S&T activity into the innovation system — is being viewed as a reaffirmation of the confidence the prime minister has in the new position. Carty says his responsibility for all aspects of S&T — knowledge, infrastructure and industry — necessitates strengthening the role of federal S&T.

“There’s a need to reinvigorate government science, to build partnerships and horizontal collaboration with universities and industry,” he says. “There’s been a modest investment in government science in the past 10 years but at the same time there’s been an erosion in infrastructure and poor morale. All these pieces mean there has to be a fair bit of analysis and decisions as to how we make government science work better for Canadians.”

While the SFTT was bereft of detail, the prime minister’s response the following day was a welcome change of pace. In addition to the announcement of funding for the Canadian Academies of Science, the reply committed to support northern science and research and reaffirmed that $1 billion from the sale of the government’s stake in PetroCanada would be devoted to environmental technologies. Continued funding of R&D and innovation was also restated —a commitment first made in the last Budget and the Liberal Party’s election platform.

DION SPEECH

Carty says the commitment of $1 billion for environment technologies opens up a “significant opportunity for Canada to be a leader” in the field and pointed to to a September 10 speech delivered in Calgary by Environment minister Stéphane Dion.

In the speech, Dion spoke of a new industrial revolution in which “the environment is the key driver of creativity, innovation and of competitiveness around the world”. He called for support for research into sequestration of carbon dioxide and endorsed market-based incentives to encourage the private sector to fully embrace environmental sustainability.

Dion outlined his own five-point plan calling for collaborative governance involving “permanent, on-going sector sustainability tables”, better science (emphasizing partnerships), better information shared amongst all stakeholders, an effective structure of incentives and education of the population as well as government and industry decision-makers.

“The model of sector sustainability tables ... (and) the use of market-based incentives will encourage the right kind of investments” stated Dion.

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