Polytechnics Canada's Seventh Annual Student Applied Research Showcase

Speaking Notes for The Honourable Rona Ambrose
Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for the Status of Women

At Polytechnics Canada's Seventh Annual Student Applied Research Showcase
Edmonton, Alberta
November 14, 2012

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Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you, for that warm welcome.

And I want to thank the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), as well as Polytechnics Canada, for inviting me to today's awards presentation.

It's great to be here today to recognize amazing students from across Canada and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the largest apprenticeship trainer in Canada!

NAIT is a great example of the kind of real-world problem-solving innovation that is making Alberta an economic powerhouse.

Designed to meet the demands of Alberta's industries, NAIT boasts an incredible success rate: more than nine out of ten graduates have jobs shortly after their last exam.

My friends, I believe that innovation happens on the shop floor, and NAIT exemplifies that, acting as an institutional problem-solver for Alberta industries.

That can-do spirit is reflected in the graduates NAIT has produced—graduates who have developed innovations that meet existing needs.

Take Shirley Long for example. This Medical X-Ray Technology graduate saw a gap in the practice of mammography while she was training students.

She realized that there were no textbooks for the technologists who actually conduct mammograms—so she created the Handbook of Mammography, the first textbook specifically for technologists.

Seeing a need and filling it—that's innovation on the shop room floor.

It's not the stereotypical image of an industrial shop room, but it's a perfect example of the kind of real problem solving innovation that Polytechnics Canada is celebrating today.

And what a payoff: as Shirley says, it's wonderful when “you've caught [cancer] so early that the woman has a 95 per cent chance of 20-year survival.”

Ladies and gentlemen, our Government has put innovation at the heart of our economic strategy. We know that innovation equals economic stimulus.

And my department, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), is hard at work using its economic leverage to encourage innovation and create jobs for future graduates.

I realize that when you think of PWGSC, it's probably coast guard ships and military jets that come to mind … big tech, in other words.

But big technology is, in the end, a lot of small technologies working together. And all of those small technologies are genuine opportunities for innovation.

So when our Government decided to build new ships for the Royal Canadian Navy and Coast Guard right here in Canada, we decided to use our military spending to support Canadian jobs.

We know that our solemn duty to provide our military with the tools needed to perform their jobs is also an opportunity to stimulate innovation by creating those shop room floor jobs.

In fact, as Postmedia News recently reported, every single big tech purchase equals thousands of jobs.

An analysis conducted by Meyers Norris Penny LLP estimates that over the next eight years, the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy will sustain an average of over 3,000 direct and over 2,000 indirect jobs in B.C. alone.

There will be many jobs created in traditional trades, and more and more, those jobs are being filled by your generation—young people whose entire lives have been witness to extraordinary technological change.

Our Government knows that your generation has an unprecedented level of comfort with technology, and that you're keen to keep it moving forward. In fact, we're counting on it.

And we're determined to ensure that our Government's investments support Canadian businesses as they address actual needs. That's why we launched the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program (CICP).

Not a subsidy, the CICP helps to move concrete solutions to existing problems from the lab to the marketplace.

It matches Canadian innovations to government departments and agencies with a corresponding need.

This helps companies test their products in realistic contexts, and to secure that all-important first sale.

And it helps departments and agencies to solve their problems using Canadian technology, supporting economic growth and technology. I think of it as the ideal win-win.

My department has worked with companies that have produced amazing innovations. For example, Edmonton's own Synodon has developed an aerial remote sensing device that detects methane gas seeps to support natural gas prospecting and greenhouse gas monitoring. What a perfect fit for our province's economy!

Other examples abound. The CICP has already seen the development of innovations that help train first responders in marine environments, speedbumps that detect illicit radioactive materials, a search engine that locates machine parts using 3-D imagery, and a grid-scale flywheel energy storage system that works without the usual limitations of batteries.

If you're thinking that my job is cooler than you thought, you're right! I admit that working with leading-edge Canadian innovators is, in a word, fun!

And you know what? I've seen over and over that the people who work in these outside-the-box workplaces enjoy going to work and making a contribution.

Having seen the caliber of the winning student innovations being celebrated today, I'm proud of the jobs that our Government is helping to create, and I know that the young minds here today have bright futures ahead.

Thank you.