Industry Canada creates new innovation division

Industry Canada is enacting a major overhaul of its policy shop, creating a new innovation sector by splitting off four branches from the current policy sector to create a new entity focused on the innovation agenda. The two branches remaining in the policy sector— strategic policy and micro-economic policy — will fall under the leadership of Ron Parker, visiting senior ADM who comes to the department from the Privy Council Office.

Another ADM will be appointed to take over the new innovation sector, which will include four branches: marketplace frameworks, international and intergovernmental affairs, innovation policy and small business policy.

“This (new) sector will be responsible for innovation policy in its broadest sense, from the underlying marketplace framework policies (IP, corporate governance, investment, SME financing) to public funding for R&D, to S&T leadership in the Government of Canada, to commercialization,” DM Suzanne Hurtubise said in a written statement.

Parker will take over from David Fransen who is leaving on a two-year executive interchange to head up the Univ of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (R$, November 25/05). In the weeks before his departure, Fransen is leading the efforts to create the new innovation sector, although the work will be far from complete when he leaves.

“The new sector will give more prominence, focus and senior leadership to these areas,” says Fransen. “I will be working with Suzanne (Hurtubise) and the DGs to identify a way forward, but there’s only a limited amount I can do. It will be up to the new ADM to define all of it. There’s a lot of work to do.”

Parker will also provide secretariat support to the DM as chair of the DM’s Committee on Economic Prosperity.

The re-alignment comes as Industry Canada works to update its 1996 federal S&T strategy. Work on the updated strategy coincides with a study nearing completion by the Council of Science and Technology Advisors (CSTA) on the management of S&T within the federal government. The release of the CSTA report is uncertain due to the current election period.

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