Editorial - 18-5

Last month’s Budget provides the first concrete indications that the government of Paul Martin is serious about moving a lot more of the nation’s substantial R&D investment into the marketplace. The caveat, according to senior government officials, is not just a lack of available funding but the absence of a comprehensive implementation strategy.

That puts the pressure on the appointed officials — especially Dr Arthur Carty as the freshly minted national science advisor — to develop a framework in the next few months that can accommodate dynamic proposals and targeted investments. Carty already has a rapidly growing list of tasks assigned to him. He is part of a triumvirate responsible for determining the impact of federal R&D investments made to date, as well as examining ways to improve the environment for commercialization. Big science, international science, clusters … the list goes on.

S&T is not the only priority facing the Martin government. Electoral success obviously tops the list, followed by health care and federal-provincial relations. The job of Carty and others is to ensure that S&T issues are heard, positively responded to and accelerate the nation’s transition to a knowledge-based economy. That’s what the 2002 Innovation Agenda was all about and the clock is ticking.

The Budget indicates that S&T remains a key priority. Once the election and the sponsorship scandal are out of the way, it’s up to this government to move quickly on several fronts. That means an action plan and new investments to unleash Canada’s S&T capacity.