The Honourable Gary Goodyear, PC, MP Minister of State (Science and Technology)
Speaking Points
Ottawa, Ontario
November 2, 2011
Check Against Delivery
Thank you.
Please let me first recognize the presence of His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada.
Ambassador Jacobson, Mr. Newman, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
It is a pleasure to join you at this very timely conference on enhancing the North American innovation ecosystem.
As Minister of State for Science and Technology and Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, I'm delighted to have this opportunity to discuss this important topic with my Canadian and American friends.
Ladies and gentlemen, ours is a relationship that runs deep. We share one of the world's longest borders. We share knowledge and expertise across governments, academia and business. And we share scientific progress and the prosperity it brings as part of a closely connected North American economy.
As International Trade Minister Ed Fast pointed out in Washington recently, last year our two-way trade in goods and services reached $650 billion, over $1.8 billion a day, or roughly $1.2 million in trade every minute!
All told, the jobs of over 8 million Americans depend on trade with Canada, just as over 2 million Canadian jobs depend on trade with the United States. Canada is the top destination for the exports of 36 U.S. states. Needless to say, our shared quality of life is heavily dependant on our mutual relationship.
Our two counties have many reciprocal interests, initiatives and, truth be told, the occasional issue. But in the end, they always bind us closer together.
Take the Beyond the Border initiative launched by Prime Minister Harper and President Obama in February. Through this effort, our governments are increasing perimeter security and economic competitiveness, improving trade and traffic across our borders and reducing red tape.
As a regional development minister, I know first-hand the critical importance of free and efficient trade between us. Our government believes more commerce, like more innovation, is the best way to create and protect jobs and grow our respective economies. So we look forward to continued dialogue on issues such as the American Jobs Act and new infrastructure in the Windsor–Detroit corridor.
I also know first-hand the critical importance of innovation to continental prosperity. I represent a region that boasts a research-intensive and internationally focused university, Waterloo, as well as two world-leading research facilities, the Institute for Quantum Computing and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. As well, the corporate headquarters for Research In Motion and OpenText are situated there. So I have some direct experience with the summit's theme.
And I can tell you that Canada thinks of innovation as a broad endeavour, rather than a national effort. And meeting common challenges and expanding the frontiers of discovery and economic opportunity are based on strong partnerships.
In an integrated economy, scientific and technological advances on one side of the border have positive effects on the other.
And never have innovation—and collaboration—been as important as they are today.
Both Canada and the United States are facing increased competition from China, Brazil and India—among others—in value-added manufacturing, industrial research, and the training and development of highly skilled personnel.
And this is occurring against the backdrop of continuing global economic uncertainty in the industrialized West.
The recovery remains fragile. Canada, for the most part, has been fortunate. Our fundamentals remain strong and—as part of Canada's Economic Action Plan—we are creating and protecting jobs by keeping taxes down, attracting more investment, and supporting greater training and research.
This being said, we are entering a time of restraint as our government seeks to reduce the deficit and return to balance. This means some tough choices. And this is not unique to the north side of the 49th parallel.
As we look to the future, and focus on creating durable jobs and sustainable growth, more effective science and technology (S&T) collaboration offers tremendous opportunity. High performing partnerships yield rapid advances in knowledge and accelerate discovery by giving researchers quick access to more information, ideas, and facilities. And they also allow the costs, risks and benefits of research to be shared.
It's no coincidence that the theme of next year's American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting is "Flattening the World: Building the Global Knowledge Society." Its focus is the international, multidisciplinary efforts required to meet the challenges of the 21st century. By the way, the triple A S will take place in beautiful Vancouver.
Bottom line: it is in our best interests to grow—and amplify—efforts to ensure our two countries remain global leaders in science, technology and innovation.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to turn to four areas which offer great opportunity in these challenging times.
First, building on existing, and developing new, Canada and U.S. partnerships between our research institutions and businesses.
Second, partnering in federally funded research, such as regional clusters, where we can build a mutually reinforcing competitive advantage.
Third, expanding our business-to-business research and development (R&D) partnerships.
And lastly, learning from each other on best practices in terms of policy and regulation.
In the classroom and in the lab, the U.S. is by far Canada's largest research partner. Broad areas of collaboration include biomedical research, space, information and communications technologies, energy, environment and Arctic research.
This culture of collaboration is deeply embedded in our universities—with thousands of Canadian and American students pursuing their education in each others' countries. As do Canadian and American faculty who move freely across the border to teach and carry out research with their colleagues. More than half of all Canadian scientists who co-author internationally do so with U.S. counterparts.
To build on the high calibre of the scientific research conducted here in Canada, our government has introduced a number of initiatives that span the key career steps of promising researchers. These include the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships, the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships and the Canada Research Chairs, which support emerging and established researchers. Beyond this there are a limited number of Canada Excellence Research Chairs, which offer $10 million to internationally recognized academics. These programs have no restriction on nationality or country of origin. Not surprisingly, a significant number of recipients are American.
I can also tell you that formalized collaboration is strongly established in our government-to-government relations. In fact, there are some 23 S&T-related arrangements between U.S. and Canadian federal departments, spanning initiatives from the ocean floor to the far reaches of space.
Canada has also worked very closely with the American space program since the creation of NASA. Canadian engineers and scientists played key roles in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. And the Canadian Space Agency continues to work with NASA on such projects as the James Webb Space Telescope, the Phoenix Mars Scout Mission and the CloudSat mission.
And these sorts of productive, bilateral initiatives will continue, as I was happy to discuss in some depth yesterday with Dr. Colglazier.
Finally, let me say a few words on how businesses in Canada and the U.S. are joining forces to innovate. An imperative that must continue if we are to improve our economic competitiveness.
Introducing goods, services and processes that create jobs, improve the lives of our citizens and create wealth for our economies—it is the private sector that really puts innovation into action.
In a large number of cases, U.S. and Canadian companies are tapping each other for highly skilled personnel and innovative R&D. Similarly, firms are always looking to partner with businesses on the other side of the border to gain access to more customers and increased growth.
Take, for example, Honeywell. Its Tempe, Arizona location is responsible for the Power Thermal Management System on the F-35 Fighter. The Honeywell facility in Mississauga has long been recognized for its expertise in aircraft electronic environmental controls. So Honeywell turned to Mississauga to design and develop the controller, or "brain" for the Power Thermal Management System.
This is a great example of mutually beneficial innovation on both sides of the border. This system, as part of the F-35, will be flown by the United States Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force, further demonstrating our cross-border cooperation and shared interests.
In the pharmaceutical industry, collaborative and open innovation has become key to the commercialization of important new treatments by small research firms.
For instance, Cardiome Pharma, a University of British Columbia spin-off in collaboration with U.S.-based Merck, is developing a drug intended to steady the condition of patients at risk of heart attacks. And Pfizer, among others, is working with two Montréal-based biotech companies to accelerate drug development.
Such collaboration is essential to create new manufacturing opportunities in our life sciences sectors.
Measured as a percentage of GDP, our higher education expenditures on R&D are the largest in the G7. But we have more work to do in building the knowledge economy of tomorrow.
Despite high levels of federal support for R&D, Canada continues to lag in business R&D spending, commercialization of new products and services, and productivity growth.
We know that our private sector could do more by increasing investments in R&D and integrating it as a fundamental business strategy.
That is why a year ago we asked an independent panel of experts to review federal investments in business and commercially oriented R&D and provide advice on optimizing this support. We are now studying their recommendations. And we will soon launch a similar review of our support for aerospace, which will include a significant R&D component.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that the United States faces its own challenges to its leadership in international innovation. I also know we can learn much from each other.
Improving our performance in scientific research and technological development is probably the most important economic goal for governments worldwide. And I know that this is at the top of the policy agenda in both Washington and Ottawa.
I would like to leave you with the words of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has said "science powers commerce."
I believe that by working together on science, technology and innovation, improving our standards of living, and building sustainable economic prosperity for our citizens, the world will increasingly look to our two countries to glimpse the future.
Thank you.
