Thank you for that kind introduction. I would like to acknowledge our hosts at the Science and Technology in Society Forum and thank them for the invitation to speak to you.
It is a pleasure for me to engage in this ongoing dialogue on fostering innovation with my international colleagues as well as with senior private sector representatives and experts. I'd like to share with you our government's approach to innovation, which is part of a full spectrum that begins with encouraging our youth to pursue education in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and leads to increased private sector productivity and sustained economic growth.
I hope you will come to see that our government considers science, technology and innovation of paramount importance in securing Canada's long-term prosperity.
Our government is committed to partnerships between academia and the private sector. We have created an attractive environment in Canada for both basic research and business innovation.
Science and technology (S&T) is a key foundation on which economic relationships are built. As Prime Minister Harper has said, science powers commerce.
I want to offer you a glimpse into our government's ongoing research commitments and initiatives—and how they are part of our efforts to promote innovation.
Since Prime Minister Harper launched the science and technology strategy in 2007, our government has made substantial commitments to strengthen Canada's S&T advantages. We focused our energies on attracting and retaining talent, supporting excellence in science, bringing discoveries and innovation to the marketplace, and building S&T infrastructure.
Several years ago, when faced with the uncertainty of the global economic downturn, a time when many faced difficult choices, our government chose to continue investing in S&T. This is because our government understood that investments in research and development (R&D) become even more important during difficult times.
Investing in S&T was a key element of our government's stimulus initiatives to deal with the recent recession. Through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, our government invested $2 billion in state-of-the-art science infrastructure and leveraged an additional $3 billion from other levels of government.
These investments helped Canada reach the highest level in the G7 for higher education expenditures on R&D measured as a percentage of GDP. We also have the highest proportion of post-secondary graduates among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
According to a recent report by the Canadian Council of Academies, the number of Canadian scientific papers produced between 2005 and 2010 grew by nearly 60 percent over the previous period studied, 1999 to 2004. Canada was the only G7 country to increase its output above the world average.
That makes for a dynamic and vibrant academic and research environment.
Our government is committed to building on this achievement, most notably through a number of initiatives designed to connect Canadian researchers and institutions to the wider world. Through graduate scholarship and post-doctoral fellowship programs, we are attracting and retaining some of the world's brightest minds.
Last year, our government added 10 new research chairs under the successful Canada Excellence Research Chairs program we launched in 2008. Our government offered $10 million over seven years to internationally recognized researchers and their teams working at Canadian institutions.
Our efforts are clearly making a difference. In a highly competitive global environment where innovation and collaboration matter, the world took notice of Canada.
But we recognize that investments in research are just the beginning. We know that business investment in R&D is crucial to increasing productivity and our long-term competitiveness.
That's why we are focused on creating an environment that encourages businesses to innovate.
Our government's 2012 budget—Economic Action Plan 2012—doubled the funding of our research assistance program to significantly increase support for R&D activities performed by small and medium-sized companies.
We are also making changes at Canada's venerable National Research Council to refocus it back to its original mandate—that of demand-driven business-oriented research to help our private sector develop new products and services.
We have developed a program to support innovation through procurement, whereby small and medium-sized companies connect with federal departments to build their capacity to compete in the marketplace.
And we are helping high-growth firms access risk capital by investing $400 million toward the creation of large-scale venture capital funds, which will be led by the private sector.
To further improve the links between public research and private sector needs, our government has created programs to help companies partner with universities and colleges. In this way, the private sector and academia have common access to research networks, facilities and young research talent.
These programs, which involve business-led networks and centres of excellence for commercialization and research, are helping researchers and entrepreneurs develop new ideas and translate those ideas into successful products and processes.
We are focused on the conditions necessary for a healthy innovation system: supportive marketplace frameworks, engaged citizens, highly skilled people and sound infrastructure.
Underlying all of these conditions is the vital need for collaboration. Today, more than ever, successful innovations are coming from companies engaged in partnership arrangements, whether with other firms or with knowledge institutions. This is a significant change from what was taking place 40 or 50 years ago, when innovations generally came from large firms acting on their own.
In short, the landscape has changed, and the rate of change is accelerating. In this new reality, information sharing and research connectedness drive economic success.
In a world where innovation increasingly depends on collaboration, Canada is striving to be a model of leadership through government programs that bring the private and public sectors together, that create a supportive climate for start-ups, and that help attract and retain world-class expertise.
S&T is a global endeavour. Government efforts must be connected to the global supply of ideas, talent and technologies.
Today, and even more so in the future, successful economies are those that create knowledge by supporting collaborative R&D. Canadian researchers are major contributors to worldwide networks and communities—both virtual and physical.
I look forward to this morning's discussion on the ways we can work together to deepen our research collaboration. We must aim to bring forward the innovations that our society needs to provide for prosperity and sustainable solutions to global challenges.
Thank you.
