Markham, Ontario - 4 December 2014
Thank you, Ed.
I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, everyone.
Good afternoon.
I want to thank Paul Calandra for getting us started today and also Ed Holder.
Thank you for your warm introduction.
Greetings as well to my colleagues from Parliament who have joined us, Joe Daniel, John Carmichael, Patrick Brown, are also with us.
I also want to thank Judy and Pat and in fact everyone from IBM for hosting us here today.
We really appreciate it.
Give them a hand.
It’s actually very appropriate that we should be at IBM’s Canadian office here in Markham.
IBM is a company that has driven an awful lot of world-changing research.
I’m here today to talk about some significant new actions that will make Canada the destination of choice for the world’s best researchers and in the process, trigger jobs and growth.
First though before I do that, let me just recognize Dr. Gertler and the academic community who’s joined us today because the U-15 really is behind a lot of what we’re doing here today.
So congratulations to them for their good work on this.
But before I get to the announcement I want to tell you a little bit of a story about what’s already happening here in Canada.
Right here in the GTA, through a Government of Canada program, IBM has partnered with Dr. Carolyn McGregor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology to revolutionize the care of premature babies.
Dr. McGregor was attracted to Canada from Australia and she is a world expert in neonatal health informatics.
You could say, let me put it this way, you could say she specializes in big data about little people.
In fact she and her team are tracking the astonishing amount of data generated by all the medical devices in intensive care units that monitor these preemies, premature babies: every breath, every heartbeat, thousands every hour.
And finding ways to use this mass information to anticipate life-threatening complications before they arise.
Since 2007, Dr. McGregor has been one of the many Canada Research Chairs supported by our Government across the country.
In fact the program is what drew Dr. McGregor to Canada, and our Government is proud to be part of her research work.
I got an introduction to all this, quite an explanation earlier today, but let’s all please congratulate Dr. McGregor for the research chair and her good work.
This type of cutting edge thinking is actually a Canadian tradition.
Let me just share a quick sampler of how Canadian researchers have been expanding the boundaries of knowledge for generations.
The discovery of insulin, we all know about that; the development of the artificial pacemaker; the identification of stem cells; the invention of the telephone; the walkie-talkie; and the smart phone; radio broadcasting; and Imax movies.
I could go on.
The design of the modern snowmobile and the Canadarm.
And the Canadian technology that earlier this year of course helped us to find one of Sir John Franklin’s long-lost ships.
New Canadian science, new Canadian science, ladies and gentlemen, that we used to solve an old riddle of Canadian history.
All of these are examples of Canadian inventiveness, through and through, including medical discoveries that have so often been the gift of life itself.
How many people have lived longer, fuller days because of Canadian expertise in hypothermia that led to safer, open heart surgery?
How many more premature babies, newborns will survive thanks to the work of Dr. McGregor, her team, and her partners here at IBM?
Now, ladies and gentlemen, these Canadian accomplishments have been out of all proportion to our numbers.
We’re just that kind of country where great ideas grow and great thinkers thrive.
But to build on Canada’s established foundation of scholarships, fellowships and research chairs, such as that occupied by Dr. McGregor, we need to keep looking for more ways to support great thinkers with great ideas.
That being the case, I’m very pleased today as promised in Economic Action Plan 2014, to announce the launch of our Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
Now for those who don’t know, just to tell you a little bit about this, over the next 10 years this very significant investment will allow our post-secondary institutions to develop areas in which they already excel, the purpose being,à so that in those areas they become the very best institutions in the world.
The competition for this funding will be rigorous.
Only the best, as judged by the best, through a process of international peer review, will succeed.
Now I want to place this new program in the context of what we’re already doing.
Ed made some reference to this.
I’ve already spoken of the Canada Research Chair’s program under which Dr. McGregor operates.
In 2008, we also launched the Canada Excellence Research Chair’s program.
This very substantial funding helps our universities attract more top talent in areas identified as national priorities.
Then it allows that talent to get to work and undertake the long-term world-class research that will ultimately be the foundation for Canada’s evolving economy.
Let me tell you about just one other of these stories, success stories, and you’re all going to forgive me if I take the opportunity to tell you a good story about Calgary, other than just the Calgary Stampeders.
I have to get that one in.
Just this fall the University of Calgary used this program to recruit Dr. Steven Bryant.
He is a leading energy research expert from the University of Texas.
In the university’s view it was given through our program, and I quote, “a hunting license.”
That’s how they described it.
A hunting license to go out and find the best there was and sign him up.
Officially he will be, and I quote, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Materials Engineering for Unconventional Oil Reservoirs.
What that actually means is that Dr. Bryant and his team will be exploring the use of nanotechnology specifically to make the process of extracting oil from our oil sands more environmentally friendly and more productive at the same time.
Those are the ideas, the kinds of ideas whose time has come and with the addition of Dr. Bryant, we now have 22 Canada Excellence Research Chairs like this exploring new frontiers of knowledge at 16 different universities right across this country.
Let me also remind you of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships, these are awards that our Government created and are among Canada’s most esteemed academic prizes.
And they also help us keep the best Canadian minds here at home and attract other great thinkers from around the globe.
This is just a sampling of the things we’ve done.
Meanwhile another program working in tandem with our support for researchers was our Government’s Knowledge Infrastructure Program, KIP.
During the course of that – that was a stimulus program after the Great Recession – during the course of that we invested $2 billion in building and improving facilities at colleges and universities in every part of Canada, more than 500 projects from coast to coast to coast.
And I’ve said this before: The university and college sector rolled out that stimulus program more effectively and more quickly than any other program we had back in that period.
Putting this altogether, our Government has, since 2006, invested more than $11 billion in science, technology, and the pursuit of excellence in research and innovation.
As a result of our investments, relative to the size of our economy, we now lead the G-7 in research and development at institutions of higher learning.
Not surprisingly then, our researchers are now producing a disproportionately high number of internationally-cited research articles.
So with all that, what now?
To realize the full value of this investment, we recognize that remaining competitive in the global marketplace of ideas demands long-term commitment.
So does competing for the best talent the world has to offer, and maintaining and improving the standards of excellence we’ve come to expect from our post-secondary institutions.
Today, our Government is releasing our updated Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy.
Building on our original strategy launched in 2007, this will ensure that our efforts remain focused on three priorities: developing and attracting world-leading talent, promoting world-leading research, and encouraging and supporting innovation in the private sector.
The new Canada First Research Excellence Fund that I'm announcing today, the latest edition to the suite of programs that’s been developed under our strategy, will be a vital tool to support Canada’s long-term economic interests, the creation of jobs, and opportunity for Canadians and for generations to come.
Researchers at our universities will seek the answers to some of the big questions of the universe, or like Dr. Bryant, the elusive secrets of the tiniest objects known to science, and they will harness all of this – what they find – for the good of all humanity.
Here is the bottom line.
Ed made reference to it already.
For Canada under our Government the brain drain of past generations has become a brain gain and these latest initiatives will make sure that it stays that way.
Today, friends, we’re doing more than affirming our Government’s commitment and continued support for science and technology and innovation.
With the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, we will continue to lay the foundation for excellence, for greatness in these areas.
And to recalibrate an ancient saying, we are going to ensure there is always something new out of Canada.
Thank you very much.
