BC Innovation Commissioner’s final report calls for regional precincts to boost economic performance

A report on how British Columbia can utilize innovation to retain talent and bolster economic growth has been released three months after the innovation commissioner – Dr. Alan Winter – indicated that he would not be seeking a third one-year term. Winter’s final report presents five recommendations – including a call for the creation of an “enhanced network of innovation precincts” – offering short- to medium-term actions designed to retain and grow innovative companies and the economy.

Winter’s initial appointment in 2018 stemmed from a Confidence and Supply Agreement between the NDP and Green parties when they forged a coalition to form the current government. The one-year appointment was renewable based on performance.

Winter submitted his report in early February and reportedly informed the government that he would not seek a further one-year extension. The unexpected development came just days after a Cabinet shuffle that included a renaming of the Ministry of Jobs, Trade and Technology to the Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Competitiveness (MJEDC). (The Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.)

Regardless, the government welcomed the report and congratulated Winter for his “contributions to building B.C.'s tech-enabled economy” and help in identifying federal programs it hadn’t previously taken advantage of. MJEDC minister Michelle Mungall told Business in Vancouver magazine that the Innovation Commission will continue and that a new commissioner would be sought.

$2.5 billion more needed for R&D

Putting Innovation to Work for British Columbia: Growing B.C. Companies observes that innovation performance has been weak in the province due to years of “steady employment and economic growth” which saw technology adoption from foreign sources undermine that necessity for developing domestic sources of innovation. While such an approach has been successful in the past, the global growth and importance of intangible assets such as intellectual property (IP), data and software have raised the stakes for developing a domestic, digital information-based economy.

“Research in the Province is of top quality, but the value of the research has historically been captured by companies outside B.C. and Canada,” states the report. “We need to encourage … ideas to flourish, we need to give them a powerful platform to get to market and we need to create partnerships with government, industry and academia so that … businesses grow, and stay, in British Columbia.”

The report notes that BC would need to spend another $2.5 billion on R&D to “maintain or grow our current prosperity … by partnering with the federal government, the private sector and international investors”. While this aspirational target is hindered by BC’s relatively low R&D expenditures by business, the province’s strong research community has been effective in leveraging federal funding as well as attracting largely early-stage venture capital.

The report makes recommendations that it says would assist in achieving these goals, calling on the government to:

• Support an enhanced network of regional innovation precincts, as places where people can connect with like-minded innovators to explore ideas and make them come to life;
• Support the development of tech clusters in the province’s regions based around local sector strengths;
• Capitalize on the 2018 Clean BC plan aimed at reducing climate pollution, while creating more jobs and economic opportunities for people, businesses and communities;
• Help entrepreneurs protect their IP and offer incentives to commercialize good ideas in the province; and,
• Build leadership skills necessary to manage rapidly growing companies as they expand nationally and internationally.

Establish large innovation precincts

Perhaps the most ambitious recommendation is the call for regional innovation precincts to capture the benefits of cross-sectoral collaboration, organically grown talent and commercial development. Although there are currently several innovation precincts in BC, most are small, often little more than incubators or accelerators and none on the scale of Canada’s largest precinct –MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.

The Winter report is recommending precincts like Ottawa’s Bayview Yards, which was established with $38 million in funding from all levels of government. Last year, Bayview Yards linked with Invest Ottawa and the Ottawa Hospital to create a “Smart Health Sandbox” to “catalyze the commercialization and adoption of new life science innovations”.  The report says a similar precinct should be established around the new St. Paul’s Hospital Vancouver campus focused on health R&D. Other precincts could be established in regions such as Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops and Surrey/Fraser Valley.

The precincts would complement another report recommendation to support tech clusters in emerging sectors in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, genomics, fusion and augmented and virtual reality.

“Development of clusters, aside from their ability to attract talent, grow companies and enhance technologies, puts B.C. in a better position to grow technology-enabled companies and jobs,” states the report.

The Innovation Commissioner’s report was released the day after the government released the final report of the Emerging Economy Task Force which contained 25 recommendations “to help B.C. navigate global trends and technological advancements over the next 10 to 25 years” and as “a resource to help inform the province’s COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery”.

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