30 September 2013
Québec City, Québec
Thank you very much.
Thanks everyone for this warm welcome.
It's always a pleasure to be here with you in Québec City, a dynamic and prosperous burg that has an even brighter future ahead of it.
To begin, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank my colleagues, Minister Denis Lebel and MP Jacques Gourde, for being here today.
I'd also like to welcome Senator Suzanne Fortin-Duplessis, who while serving Québec City's Louis-Hébert district as a Conservative MP during the 1980's, teamed up with community stakeholders to launch the National Optics Institute, or INO, as well as the Québec technology park.
Others deserving a warm welcome are Mayor Labeaume, of course, and all the representatives from INO and its partner companies.
Last, I'd be remiss if I didn't single out Jean-Yves Roy, INO's President, as well as l'INO Board Chairman Jean-Guy Paquette for his kind introduction.
As you know, Mr. Paquette is a former rector of Laval University, and one of the true architects of INO.
It's with great pride that I accepted this invitation from INO, the National Optics Institute, to highlight the 25th anniversary of your operations.
Over this quarter century, INO has truly become an industry leader in optics and photonics research and development.
Working alongside the academic community, businesses of all sizes and governments, INO has become a shining model of cooperation – a model worth replicating.
In research circles in the Québec City region, and even internationally, INO is a known commodity.
The Institute is working on major projects across Canada.
A case in point is the work you're doing with TransCanada on pipeline security.
In fact, earlier today I had the chance to see and discuss this technology.
Another example is the important 3D cartography work that's being done way up north at the Raglan mine, which I visited recently.
You've also cooperated with Argentina, the United States and the Canadian Space Agency in such areas as natural disaster prevention, and your medical innovations even accompanied Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield into space.
All of this just to say how INO has become a symbol of pride for Canada, both here at home and around the planet – sometimes above the planet!
We can safely say, then, that INO has been and remains a real catalyst, and one of the drivers of the economy in the Greater Québec City region.
INO can also boast having contributed directly to the creation of 29 new businesses.
Such innovative companies as Terre Action, FISO Technologies and Optel Vision, for instance.
With a trajectory like that, it's only natural at this point that our Government wants to take a bit of the credit!
After all, the Federal Government has been a partner since day one.
Indeed, it's thanks to a federal contribution that INO was able to get its first offices up and running.
And I must tell you: under our Government, this partnership has continued to grow – and quite a bit, at that.
We were there to help fund both the research program and commercialization efforts, and it's this latter area – commercialization – that makes INO so valuable.
It is because of technological commercialization successes like INO that our Government commissioned a report on innovation, the Jenkins report, because we want to ensure that research across Canada can help create, as it does here, clear and tangible results; in other words, as we were saying earlier, we want to replicate this model throughout the country.
This fits in perfectly with the logic of our plan for growth, job creation and long-term prosperity for all Canadians.
More than ever before, Canada needs businesses that innovate and know how to bring to market the fruits of their innovation.
For 25 years now, INO has been doing just that.
So again I'd like to congratulate INO on a quarter century of innovation, and I hope that for many years to come you will continue your pioneering efforts along with creating new technologies and new, quality jobs in the Québec City region, as well as across Canada and around the globe.
Happy anniversary, and have a great day.
Thank you so much.
