Minister Bains offers insight into Liberal government's approach to incenting innovation

First major speech on subject

Navdeep Bains provided preliminary details on how the Liberal government plans to deliver on its to develop a new national innovation agenda. Speaking before the Toronto Region Board of Trade, the minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) touched on virtually every aspect of the innovation agenda, emphasizing collaboration and reiterating election campaign pledges including investments in clean tech and the creation of a national network of clusters comprised of incubators and accelerators.

Ryerson's DMZ and MaRS were singled out as successes that need to be replicated as Canada moves from a singular focus on start-ups to include scaling up of firms with the greatest potential for global success.

Bain said the new innovation agenda, expected in 2017, will take a "whole of government" approach and span all departments and agencies, and include the business and academic sectors as well as not-for-profits and Aboriginal leadership. He described innovation as a mindset for finding solutions to big problems — a task that includes social innovation.

The importance of R&D was highlighted, as were recent metrics showing that Canada is moving "in the wrong direction", particularly businesses which he noted have "extraordinarily high levels of cash on balance sheets".

"Our task is urgent and the rules of the global economy are changing, evolving every day, and the nature of international trade has fundamentally changed as well," said Bains. "And thanks to international trade agreements, global supply chain and e-commerce, global companies can now be local competitors."

Focus on both emerging & traditional industries

Emerging sectors like nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and clean tech will be given high priority. But Bains stressed that traditional industries have much to gain from the adoption of technology, leading to new lines of business and the disruption of existing business models which can lead to new opportunities for growth.

"Our government will focus on smart industrial policy that will help companies focus on adopting ICT (information and communication technology) in order to digitize from concept to design to production," he said. "The government can play a role through acquisition and procurement to bolster sectors such as aerospace and "create strong Canadians brands".

Bains noted that his plans include an examination of how the regional development agencies, which for the first time are under the purview of a single minister, can be utilized to enhance government's role. With a collective budget of approximately $1 billion, he asserted that they can be more effectively marshalled by incenting collaboration with one another and the sharing of best practices.

"We can make the whole much stronger than the sum of the individual parts to channel our resources to focus on innovation and really leverage these regional development agencies," said Bains.

Also mentioned in passing is the importance of diaspora networks and the potential for Canada to "leverage our diversity and be competitive globally".

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