posted on Feb. 13: Ottawa launches innovation strategy discussion

The federal government has launched its innovation strategy with the release of two discussion papers that outline a series of national goals for a competitive economy and economic growth.

Industry Minister Allan Rock and Human Resources Development Minister Jane Stewart released the papers, Achieving Excellence: Investing in People, Knowledge and Opportunity and Knowledge Matters: Skills and Learning for Canadians, yesterday.

Rock called on leaders in business, academia and the public sector
to work with all levels of government to identify ways to meet the national goals identified in the papers.

“It is time to push our efforts to a new level, to challenge Canadians with ambitious targets, and then work together to achieve them,” he said. “Government alone cannot achieve this goal. We must build on the growing consensus among business leaders, entrepreneurs, unions, academics and all levels of government that Canada's future success depends on our ability to innovate in all sectors of our economy, and in all regions of the country.”

Rock proposed goals, targets and federal priorities in four
key areas:

• creating knowledge and bringing the ideas to market more quickly, as well as increasing investment by all sectors in research and development;
• ensuring that in years to come, Canada has enough highly qualified
  people with the skills for a vibrant, knowledge-based economy;
• modernizing business and regulatory policies to support
  investment and innovation excellence while protecting quality of life;
• and supporting innovation at the local level so communities continue to be magnets for investment and opportunity.

A series of meetings will be held across the country to about the ideas in the discussion papers.

In the fall of 2002, a national summit will be held to finalize a strategy to achieve the goals, Rock said.