Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for the warm welcome.
I would like to thank ZBx Corporation for hosting us today.
My colleague, Jim Flaherty, recently presented Economic Action Plan 2012, and our commitment to making the investments in science and technology (S&T) that are necessary to sustain a modern and competitive economy is evident.
The Government of Canada is continuing its commitment to support S&T in Canada.
Budget 2012 proposes $1.1 billion over five years to support business innovation and makes available $500 million for venture capital, to realign the government's approach to promoting innovation and create better opportunities for businesses.
These budget measures will create jobs through enhanced support for business innovation and reinforce Canada's leadership in research.
One such example is our host today, ZBx Corporation, an established leader in rapid medical diagnostics. It is also a funding recipient of the National Research Council Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program.
ZBx Corporation develops rapid diagnostic platforms using its small-sample, whole-blood testing technology marketed under the trade name ZAP™. ZAP™ rapid tests operate on a simple platform technology requiring a single drop of whole blood from a finger prick with results in 10 to 15 minutes. When it began, ZBx Corporation had 2 employees; today, it employs 11 people in Toronto.
This company is a perfect example of what our government wants to achieve with our innovation agenda. Innovation is about taking ideas to market and solving problems. We will take a closer look at the company's innovative technology in a few minutes.
With the help of our hosts today, I want to give you a picture of how S&T create prosperity and of what is possible if we work together to get it right.
How do we create jobs, economic growth and prosperity through S&T? Simply put: Innovation.
Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Google and Facebook have changed our society. These are just a few examples of innovation that have had a wide-scale economic impact.
How do you create the next Microsoft or Apple? Where will the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs come from? How do we make sure it happens here in Canada?
These are the questions that our government has been working on. Today, I'd like to tell you about our strategy, how it is working, the steps we have taken so far and the challenges ahead.
Support of S&T has been a fundamental priority for this government since 2006, as shown by the introduction of our S&T strategy in 2007.
The S&T strategy is guided by the principle that innovation is driven by collaboration and the commercialization of ideas that emerge from the manufacturing floor or the university or government laboratory.
The fact is that our strategy and our significant investments have sought to encourage partnerships among the private sector, academia and government—partnerships that are turning promising ideas into the groundbreaking products, processes and applications that create jobs and lead to economic growth.
Federal S&T expenditures reached nearly $11.9 billion in 2010–11. We have demonstrated our commitment to S&T with every successive Economic Action Plan.
That said, we all know that there is still work to do. There are still challenges ahead and areas where we need to do better.
For the most part, those challenges can be overcome if the public and private sectors fully embrace innovation.
As I said earlier, S&T are essential to ensuring Canada is competitive around the world and has a prosperous future in the new global economy.
The Prime Minister summed it up best: science powers commerce.
You know Facebook was started by a university student who saw a better way of connecting his peers through S&T. Universities are communities where ideas are brought to life and problems find solutions.
To help foster this and ensure that Canada has the best and brightest, we created new scholarships such as the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships.
But despite these and other investments, we continue to face challenges.
Our private sector participation in research and development (R&D) is still lagging. In fact, a report from the Science, Technology and Innovation Council noted it's actually limiting our overall performance in innovation.
Simply put, when businesses don't invest in R&D, it's harder for them to stay competitive. It's harder for them to grow in the future, which means it's harder for the economy to create new jobs.
Our government asked an expert independent panel to look at the effectiveness of our support for business R&D. This panel was headed by Tom Jenkins of OpenText.
I received the panel's report last October. The report did a very good job defining the problems, and it made recommendations on how to improve support for innovative businesses and help them grow into larger, globally competitive companies. The panel made recommendations in two categories: budgetary and operational. Through Budget 2012, the Government of Canada is announcing the first phase of its response to the expert panel's budgetary recommendations.
Going forward, the government will continue to study the recommendations of the panel, in particular options to consolidate the suite of programs that supports business innovation and ways to ensure innovation companies have access to private sector risk capital. The government will announce further actions in response to the panel's recommendations in the coming months and in Budget 2013.
We have taken action because we are committed to turning ideas and innovations into new marketable, competitive and beneficial products that result in jobs, growth and prosperity.
For example, National Research Council Canada (NRC) is a Canadian icon. Established in 1916, it has had a tremendous history of accomplishment: Nobel Prize winner Dr. Gerhard Herzberg, the development of the pacemaker, firebrick, the hearing aid, the meningitis vaccine and CANDU technology.
It also established the Canadian Astronaut Program that led to the Canadian Space Agency. It is home to the Industrial Research Assistance Program, and it is the parent of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
But as NRC approaches its centennial, weaknesses in its operating model are apparent.
For many years, NRC's mandate had been broadened while its resources became more thinly distributed. It began to lose its focus and was being pulled in multiple, sometimes opposite, directions.
So, almost two years ago, our government appointed John McDougall as President of NRC to bring his considerable experience, knowledge and professional perspective to bear in reshaping the organization.
Since that time, our government has been taking steps to help refocus NRC on areas where it can make the most effective contributions. And to do so in ways that will significantly improve Canada's innovation performance, reaffirm NRC's reputation and create a stable business model going forward.
The model being developed will be built on proven approaches used by successful global innovation players, carefully adapted to the Canadian reality.
It will be based on hands-on experience with multinational companies, small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies and academia.
We are working to make NRC a world-class organization that is more effective in generating new jobs and growth for Canada through science, technology and innovation. And I think that this is a sure way to sustain and expand Canada's economy and prosperity for all Canadians in the years ahead.
Economic Action Plan 2012 proposes $67 million in 2012–13 to support the NRC's institutes in refocusing their efforts towards business-driven, industry-relevant applied research that will help Canadian businesses develop innovative products and services.
It also proposes to increase direct support for innovation by committing $110 million per year to the NRC to double support to companies through the Industrial Research Assistance Program, such as the one we are recognizing here today.
Ladies and gentlemen, the ideas and innovations are out there. We need to help bring them to life.
We have world-renowned post-secondary institutions and leading-edge thinkers and researchers. The next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg is probably walking on a campus in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Kitchener, Québec or Halifax right now. We need to make sure that he or she has the tools and motivation to prosper here in Canada.
We have the business expertise and leadership that is so essential in taking ideas to the next level. We have the people with the skills, the drive and the desire to ensure we can thrive and grow now and into the future. We have what it takes to build a competitive advantage in the global economy that will result in jobs, growth and prosperity. We just have to be bold!
Economic Action Plan 2012 will help us do that. Together we will succeed in bringing minds to market!
Thank you.
