Thank you for the kind introduction and for inviting me to join you here this morning. And thanks to Mitacs for making this timely dialogue possible.
It is always a pleasure for me to see so many great thinkers and advocates of research policy come together to discuss a priority that I think we all share: promoting Canadian economic growth and job creation through innovation.
Ladies and gentlemen, as the Minister of State for Science and Technology, I have had the privilege of meeting many academics, entrepreneurs and business people—both here in Canada and abroad.
And everywhere I have travelled around the world, I have heard high praise for the strength of Canada's innovation system.
Thanks to Canada's Economic Action Plan, our government has earned kudos for its competent economic management and solid fiscal fundamentals.
As a result, the Canadian economy weathered the recession better than most of our peers. Since July 2009, Canada's economy has created over 900,000 net new jobs—the strongest job growth in the G7.
What is more, for the fifth year in a row, the World Economic Forum rated Canada's banking system as the world's soundest. And three credit rating agencies—Moody's, Fitch, and Standard & Poor's—have each reaffirmed our top rating.
Yet, while Canada may have world-leading researchers and a successful G7-leading economy, our private sector spending on research and development (R&D) lags. And our commercialization capacity has fallen behind.
We all recognize that innovation is a complex economic process. Sometimes people mistake it for a linear, assembly-line process: put money and resources into research at one end and eventually products will emerge in the marketplace at the other end.
But we know innovation involves much more than that. There are many factors that influence the progression of ideas into commercial products. That is why we refer to it as an ecosystem. And we all have a role to play—private and public sector alike.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Harper, our government has been working hard to steer the economy and to promote greater investments in research and commercialization. In fact, since coming to office, we have invested more than $9 billion in support of science, technology and the growth of innovative firms.
Our resolve for science and technology (S&T) has not gone unnoticed. Amit Chakma, President of Western University and head of the U15—universities that collectively undertake 80 percent of all competitive university research in Canada—pointed out that our government has "prudently chosen to maintain funding to the crucial innovation sectors that will help generate solutions to our pressing social and economic challenges."
Now, ladies and gentlemen, beyond these important investments, we have taken steps to promote greater collaboration among universities, businesses and government. And, as many of you know, Mitacs has been leading the way on this for some time.
Our government has proudly supported the Mitacs Globalink program, which is bringing top international students to Canada and helping to build international partnerships. And we have supported Mitacs-Accelerate internships, which have proven to be highly successful in promoting business innovation by tapping into one of Canada's competitive advantages—our world-class talent and academic research environment.
In fact, I was very pleased to hear recently that the Networks of Centres of Excellence has approved the continuation of full funding of the Mitacs-Accelerate program. Administered through the Industrial Research and Development Internship program, this support means that 850 interns each year will gain valuable work experience.
For example, a recent Accelerate intern was involved in developing an intelligent, wireless sensor network that automatically detects when a person enters or leaves a room and will turn lighting and heating systems off and on as required. Because of the Bluetooth low energy technology it uses, the product is also energy efficient. And trials found that lighting costs could be cut by up to 90 percent!
Thanks to another recent Mitacs internship, a master's student in Computational Mathematics at the University of Waterloo helped develop the RNA Disruption Assay. This new tool helps determine whether chemotherapy is effectively killing off cancer cells by examining the degradation of their RNA. It is a new type of analysis that can be done in the early stages of treatment, making it much easier to detect when cells are responding to chemotherapy. Early identification allows patients to switch to other treatment options and avoid harmful side effects if an approach is not working.
Clearly, there are some brilliant innovations emerging from Mitacs programs. And our government shares your vision—one of helping Canadian businesses create game-changing products by tapping into the talents and expertise of bright young researchers.
This vision was a driving force behind the transformation of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), which our government announced earlier this month.
The new NRC, with its refocused mandate and mission to drive more business-led homegrown innovation, will strengthen Canada's research landscape.
With a focus spanning the S&T ecosystem—from discovery-driven research to more applied activity—the NRC is now positioned to generate high-quality jobs, increased business R&D activity, greater commercialization outcomes, and a prosperous and more productive Canada.
As the Prime Minister has said, science powers commerce. But commerce also helps to power science. We know that basic research leads to the innovations that enter the market and produce economic growth. And from economic growth comes the ability to invest in basic research. It is the classic virtuous circle.
This is a significant—and critically needed—change. And through it, our government is ensuring that Canadian firms are able to become even more successful on the global stage.
To complement the business community's improved access to R&D, our government well knows that capital is a must. And for this reason we announced $400 million to increase investment in early-stage risk capital and support the creation of large-scale venture capital funds. And with Economic Action Plan 2013, we have gone further, providing $60 million to support incubator and accelerator organizations to increase their services to entrepreneurs.
All of these measures are in direct response to Canada's key science and technology challenge, which is to increase business innovation through both investments in private sector R&D and the commercialization of great ideas. But this is not a new challenge. We saw it highlighted again recently in the State of the Nation report from the Science, Technology and Innovation Council, and I can tell you that we have been implementing measures and strengthening our strategic response to these issues for several years.
However, something that the State of the Nation report also underscored is the vitality and fortitude of Canada's talent base: 51 percent of our adult population has a university or college education—one of the highest levels in the world. We also saw a remarkable 31.8-percent increase in the number of science degrees granted between 2006 and 2010 and a 7.3-percent increase in the number of engineering degrees granted during that same period. And our production of scientific knowledge continues to thrive. With only half a percent of the world's people, Canada accounted for more than 4 percent of the world's natural sciences and engineering publications in 2010. Simply put, there are many highly skilled individuals in Canada and there's a lot of high-quality information being generated right here.
Continuing to cultivate that talent and knowledge is vital to our productivity and economic prosperity. This is why I was pleased to announce last week an investment of more than $400 million in discovery research and scholarships—funding that will support more than 3,800 researchers across the country in advancing their investigations in all fields of science. Those researchers are a very important part of our talent base, and they make huge contributions to Canada's production of scientific knowledge.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want to be clear: discovery-driven basic research remains essential to our government's approach. But in an era of rapid technological change, we cannot ignore the transformative potential of science in the marketplace. We are working to promote the commercialization of ideas because the quality of life of Canadians depends on stronger productivity and innovation in the private sector.
And a successful innovation system requires a mix of complementary elements. R&D spending is only one of several inputs. The role of government is to establish policies and frameworks that provide the climate for private sector competition and investment. We need to encourage business strategies and improve the climate for new ventures to better commercialize university research. We need to support areas of strength and encourage public-private research collaboration.
We are doing just that—focusing on the conditions necessary for a healthy Canada.
What underpin these principles are, of course, partnerships. More than ever before, successful innovations come from partnership arrangements. And Mitacs is an excellent example of this in action.
Moving forward, we all have a role to play in defining a successful Canadian economy. On behalf of the Government of Canada, we look forward to working with you. Thank you.
