Good morning. Thank you for that kind introduction, and thank you to Genome Canada for the invitation to join you here today. It is a great pleasure to be here.
To begin, I want to congratulate the Gairdner Foundation for the continued success of its international awards in medicine. I would also like to congratulate Genome Canada; you make tremendous contributions to the quality of genomics research in Canada. By supporting the translation of discoveries into products and processes, you are helping generate economic, social and health benefits for Canadians across the country.
As Minister of State for Science and Technology, I am privileged to meet brilliant, committed professionals, like you, who are at the forefront of their fields and who push the boundaries of human knowledge and ingenuity.
In fact, it is my firm personal belief that scientific research and discovery are key to continuing Canada's record of economic growth and leadership in innovation.
It came as no surprise to me that a recent report from the Council of Canadian Academies concluded that our S&T enterprise is healthy, growing, internationally competitive and respected among the world's leading scientists.
To be precise, we ranked fourth in the world among the scientists surveyed. Of course, we should all be proud of that ranking, but everyone here knows that we need to continue to improve our nation's performance in unlocking the significant potential of science and technology in order to power our prosperity.
To do so, we must continue to foster greater collaboration among the private sector, academia and governments in a way that promotes knowledge transfer, drives innovation and spurs faster commercialization.
Events such as this one are at the core of that collaboration.
And really, the goal here is to fulfill the promise of genomics—just as you have aptly named the conference, Genomics: The Power and the Promise.
Our government is a committed partner in this respect. Since 2006, we have allocated $440 million for genomics-related research through Genome Canada. In turn, Genome Canada and the Genome Centres will leverage more than $440 million in partnered co-funding, for a total of $880 million.
Now I would say that an $880-million investment in genomics is a pretty good demonstration of the strength of our partnership and how important genomics is to the future.
The Harper Government invests in genomics because we know that it improves the lives of Canadians and that it creates high-quality jobs.
To date, Genome Canada has funded 156 large-scale, world-class research projects.
I would be remiss if I did not mention our government's continued partnership with the Gairdner Foundation. I am very proud of the fact that in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Canada Gairdner International Awards, we provided the Foundation with a $20 million endowment. And just this past summer, we made an additional investment of $2 million to support the Canada Gairdner Awards for another five years. This support has enabled the Foundation to enhance its reputation by honouring Canada Gairdner Award winners on the international front.
Ladies and gentlemen, these investments are just one part—albeit an important one—of our government's broader engagement on science, technology and innovation, which was launched in 2007 with our S&T strategy.
This strategy—one of the first actions we took after coming to office—has helped redefine the way governments, businesses and the research community band together to drive economic activity through science.
Genome Canada plays an important role in the development of Canada's knowledge advantage, its people advantage and its entrepreneurial advantage—three key elements of the S&T strategy. And our efforts are clearly paying off.
The Structural Genomics Consortium is one such effort that comes to mind.
Based at the University of Toronto, the Consortium supports the discovery of new medicines through open access research. It is a stellar example and a unique Canadian demonstration of collaboration on all levels—nationally, internationally and among researchers, academia and industry—to create a new business model. Specifically, this is a new model for pre-competitive drug discovery that will make all of its findings available to the global research community without restriction.
To give you an idea of the extent of the collaboration involved, the Consortium, a not-for-profit organization, counts more than 200 researchers from universities, 6 pharmaceutical companies and 10 different partners, which include the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, the United Kingdom's Wellcome Trust, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Genome Canada and the Canada Foundation for Innovation, to name a few.
Together, their collaboration will help the Consortium accomplish its goals. It's the ultimate example of partnership, which has the potential to transform the entire world with its promising medical discoveries.
If you'll indulge me, I'd like to highlight just one more example: the International Barcode of Life project, or iBOL for short.
Known as the largest biodiversity genomics initiative ever undertaken, iBOL is a global effort being led by Canadian researchers focused on constructing a DNA sequence library that would allow for the identification of organisms both quickly and inexpensively. The collected barcodes use DNA to refine our knowledge in hopes of answering one of the most fundamental questions in biodiversity science—how many species are on the planet?
This type of DNA barcoding has already been used to identify falsely labelled fish in Canada and the United States. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on a global database of fruit fly barcodes to combat horticultural pests and tree barcodes to identify lumber products from endangered forests. Here at home, Environment Canada is working with iBOL for monitoring water quality.
Moving forward, more initiatives involving the globalization of trade, impacts of climate change and calls for biodiversity conservation are sure to make rapid species identification a worldwide interest, and Canadian researchers are going to be playing a leadership role.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can take pride in these accomplishments, not only as Canadians but also as members of the global community.
Scientific advancement knows no borders; it benefits everyone.
Clearly, our country's rich history of discovery, research and development has propelled us to play an important role on the world stage.
From the light bulb to the alkaline long-lasting battery, to the discovery of the gene for cystic fibrosis, Canadian researchers, entrepreneurs and businesses have led the way in innovation.
And our government is committed to working with you—the scientific community—to facilitate these types of breakthroughs and discoveries and to take it to the next level.
This means bringing innovative products and processes to the marketplace, which will in turn create high-quality jobs, economic growth and long-term prosperity. Because for our government, innovation is not a set of programs, institutions and technologies, it is a highly networked ecosystem. It is a product of collaboration. It is what happens when people like you refuse to take "no" for an answer.
I encourage you to take risks, draw on your competitive spirit and come up with bold new approaches to traditional challenges. On behalf of the Harper Government, I wish all of you the best over the next two days.
Thank you.
