ADDRESS BY PRIME MINISTER JEAN CHRÉTIEN ON THE OCCASION OF THE NATIONAL SUMMIT ON INNOVATION AND LEARNING

November 18, 2002
Toronto, Ontario

I am delighted to be here in Toronto this evening to open the National Summit on Innovation and Learning. The Summit is the culmination of months of discussion led by Jane Stewart and Allan Rock.

They have been meeting with many of you -- from labour, business, academic, and community organizations.

This gathering is our opportunity to affirm our shared priorities, to challenge each other, and to chart the way forward.

I assure you that my government will follow through on our end of the challenge. With energy and concrete action in the months ahead. We need you to do the same.

We share the same goal: to build on Canada's strengths and make this country a model for the world.

My cabinet and caucus colleagues are here to listen to you. On how together we will achieve the Canada we want.

Tonight I would like to talk with you about a five point Action Plan on Innovation. And about how we challenge ourselves to get there:

First, we must make Canada a Learning Society, where learning and upgrading become continuous;

Second, we must become a Knowledge Society that invests in ideas;

Third, we have to improve how we bring ideas to market, Creating Clusters that link those who produce and those who apply knowledge;

Fourth, we must work together on Smart Regulations that spur innovation;

Finally, we need to draw on our Diversity of talent, and we must underpin our Plan with an Urban Strategy. That will help create a quality of life in our Communities that is second to none. And ensure Canada becomes a magnet for talent and investment from all over the globe.

This Action Plan needs your input and commitment if it is to be realized.

I see it as a recipe for Canada's greatness - for achievements beyond what we have known.

For I know in my head - and feel in my gut - that Canada is poised for greatness.

Why do I think this? Look at our proud history. Struggles with hard winters and landscapes...political tests..wars. Welcoming newcomers. Valuing different perspectives. Sharing burdens and opportunities.

Through drive, accommodation, and tolerance, our ancestors achieved great things. Out of these values and the drive to succeed, Canadians became creative, tough, and smart.

We established a tradition of getting really good at what we are good at. Communication. Transportation. Resource extraction. Environmental and Health technologies. We are winners in many arenas.

And I am sensing an even stronger spirit of confidence right now. Quite simply, since the early `90s we have had to be extremely disciplined and creative in responding to tough economic times and big political challenges.

Together we have succeeded.

I am proud of what we have accomplished while I have been your Prime Minister. And I remain impassioned about driving through on the next phase of my tenure.

Our nation is united. Our fiscal situation is sound. Five consecutive balanced budgets, and on track for a sixth after twenty-eight years of deficits.

At present we are the only G-7 country with a surplus. Nearly $47 billion has been paid towards our national debt. Our debt-to-GDP ratio has fallen from 71 percent to 49 percent. Interest rates and inflation remain low.

And we have made the largest tax cut in Canadian history - $100 billion over five years.

Our economic prospects are striking: in the first half of 2002 our economy grew at an annualized rate of more than five percent...strongest in the G-7.

Both the IMF and the OECD project that Canada will outperform all of the G-7 this year and next. Canadians are seeing improvements in their personal finances too: disposable income per capita has increased by nearly 3 percent in the last 12 months.

A recent study by KPMG on the costs of doing business recently declared that Canada to be the best place in the world right now for business investment.

Canadian businessmen and women, workers, our researchers, all have reason to feel proud, confident and gutsy.

And it is time to take bolder steps.

Because boosting productivity and world-beating success will require more of us. More of you.

1. A Learning Society

It starts with learning. And literacy.

Making Canada a Learning Society means putting people first. Valuing their development at every stage of life. Providing the tools and opportunities to grow and contribute.

Key to long-term productivity is investing in our kids. A few years back we introduced the National Child Benefit and increased the income of over 1.2 million families. We are now seeing a steady decline in child poverty. Statistics Canada has just reported that the number of children living in low income families has decreased from 16.7% in 1996, to 12.5% percent in 2000 - a drop of 25%.

With provinces, we created the Early Childhood Development Agreement to strengthen services for young children. To help them get the best start.

We created the Canada Millennium Scholarships to provide support to more than 27,000 Canadian students. We increased student loans and grants to help all students. The Trudeau Foundation assists our best and brightest students.

We will do even more to ensure Canadian children are ready to learn. And so young Canadians can excel.

But we need to create opportunities for every citizen to keep upgrading. Today's workplace requires people who adapt quickly. To new products, new techniques, new software.

I am saying to you tonight that business must invest in learning for their workers if they want to compete. Canada is not doing enough here.

I challenge business and labour to jump on this imperative - for the sake of your workers, for the sake of your competitiveness. We must all do more. We must all do better.

We need to set goals, measure and report on results, let our employees know we support them upgrading their skills. Just as workers must become learners, so must business, government, and the voluntary sector become learning organizations.

Over the long term the decisions we make on how to invest in learning and skills must be based on higher quality information. On measuring learning achievements across the life cycle and across the country. And based on knowledge of what works and what doesn't.

I am confirming tonight that the federal government is prepared to work with its partners to develop the Canadian Learning Institute. To create a locus for information and research on learning. But it will require a collaborative partnership with provinces and the private sector to make it work. Tonight I challenge all of us to get together and make this concept a reality.

2. A Knowledge Society

Canada is becoming a Knowledge Society. Investing in Research. Advanced Studies. Multi-Disciplinary approaches. New discoveries. New ideas. Their application and commercialization.

These elements, are the fuel of the new economy. That is why we created the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Genome Canada. The Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the 2000 Canada Research Chairs. It is why we have boosted funding to all the granting councils to support our researchers.

We recognize that the knowledge pipeline must be continually fed. And we will do more. But business also has to invest more in research, and in the development of new ideas.

The evidence shows that we are too risk averse as investors in new products and processes. We need to be bolder. If we are not, the ideas that are thought up here will migrate. And create jobs somewhere else.

Tonight I am challenging the managers of the big investment funds to become more like the venture capitalists elsewhere. And do more to support the start-ups.

So the jobs stay here. So more talent wants to come here. Canadians deserve your backing. And your nerve.

No doubt about it, my government will continue to invest in research. We have committed to increased funding for graduate studies.

And we are committed to supporting universities on the indirect costs of research.

But we, and Canadian society, expect something back - Canadians want to know what results these investments are achieving.

That is why I am pleased to announce that we have just concluded a Framework of Agreed Principles with the Association of Universities and College of Canada.

Canadian Universities have agreed to double the amount of research they perform. Triple their commercialization performance. And contribute more to the economic and social development of their communities.

The AUCC has responded to a challenge. I salute them. And look forward to the next phase in an important partnership.

3. Creating Clusters

Innovation demands investment in research and business clusters. Where start-ups and established players can compete and collaborate. And feed off each other's energy.

Build on local strengths. On the Canadian advantage. And become world beaters in a host of areas. Biotech. Health. Environment. Culture. Software.

All of the players here for this summit need to be guided by this "cluster philosophy."

My government is committed to it. We have acted. On projects like the $120 million Nanotechnology Centre in Edmonton. We announced last summer with the province of Alberta. And on many others.

In the weeks and months ahead, we will be making more such concrete announcements to help create strategic clusters. Stay posted.

No one does a better job at applying knowledge -- of bringing new ideas and products swiftly to market than Canada's Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. SMEs have been by far the main source of job growth in Canada this past decade. Programs of the National Research Council have helped SME's adopt new technologies and advanced manufacturing techniques. And we will do more.

4. Smart Regulation

A Knowledge Society has to be smart about the regulations that guide activities and protect our quality of life. We must use regulation to spur innovation. This is why we will be creating an External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation. They will provide expert advice on combining stewardship with greater opportunity. We will be announcing the details very soon.

Smart regulation will include renewing our regulatory framework for new drug approvals. This will allow Canadians faster access to beneficial drugs.

We know it will also improve the climate in Canada for research in pharmaceuticals. Anne McLellan will have more to say on a process to support this effort in the weeks ahead.

Our copyright regimes can better support investment in culture; our environmental approval process can be made more transparent and effective.

Finally, government can ensure that complying with Canada Customs and Revenue becomes easier and quicker. That is why Minister Caplan is working to ensure a responsive, client-centred approach to service.

A number of you have been concerned about the flow of goods, services, and talent both ways across the Canada-US border. So I am pleased to say that through partnership and working hard for Canadian interests, we have made enormous progress. The Smart Border Declaration is a model of what we can achieve with our biggest market to the South.

My government is serious about Smart Regulation. We look forward to your advice and engagement on how we can use regulation to spur growth, innovation, and trade in these and other areas.

5. Diversity, Communities, Cities

An innovative society is an inclusive society. It embraces the hopes of all of its members. It welcomes new comers. It supports the dreams of Aboriginal people, and persons with disabilities. It invests in innovation in rural areas.

It ensures women can succeed at the highest levels of society. It values Diversity. For these are longstanding Canadian goals.

Canada must be the destination of choice for talented immigrants.

We will break down the impediments to recognition of foreign credentials. We will fast-track skilled workers entering Canada with jobs waiting for them. And I commit our government to providing the resources necessary to recruit more aggressively through our embassies abroad and at foreign universities.

We will promote entrepreneurship among Aboriginal people by increasing support for Aboriginal Business Canada. And we will invest in targeted training programs to help Aboriginal and Inuit people be part of great opportunities such as Voisey`s Bay and northern gas pipelines.

Our government remains committed to fast-tracking a comprehensive agreement to remove barriers to participation in work and learning for persons with disabilities.

An innovative society values equality, and promotes opportunities for women in business and elsewhere.

That is why I am very pleased to be announcing today the creation of a Prime Minister's Caucus Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs. To be headed by "Sam" [Sarmite] Bulte who brought me this idea.

She will be looking into how Canada can attract and support more women in pursuing entrepreneurship. I am sure she will be talking to many of you about it in the days to come. Inclusion, openness, tolerance, diversity, bilingualism - these are key Canadian advantages.

When people feel accepted and valued for who they are, they feel good. They can feel excited. A "buzz" is created. This is when learning, originality and innovation flourish.

I have always believed it. Research is now proving it.

These values, this inclusive approach are key reasons why Canada is poised to take a huge step forward. For it is key to the quality of life in our communities and our cities.

Our cities indeed play an increasingly important role in our economic development. Their strength, their ability to compete, their ability to attract talent and investment is important to all of us.

The federal government is therefore acting on an Urban Strategy. Working with other governments and players.

For a sound Urban Strategy is the underpinning to all the other factors I have spoken of.

If we want to create clusters, draw talent, be inclusive, we must have world class cities. Must deal with congestion, smog, water and sewage, social problems.

We must invest without delay in transit, housing, key infrastructure. That is why we have committed to a ten-year program for infrastructure.

We are acting in each of these areas to improve our cities. And will do much more. Soon.

Another element in a quality of life agenda is to move forward on Kyoto. For our children. For future generations.

I know the topic causes unease for some --- but the message from Canadians is overwhelming: we must take action. And we will.

It will be a challenge, yes. Like beating the deficit. Like creating medicare. Canadians took on those challenges as necessary political choices. And Canadians know what the right political choice is here. And that we are up to this challenge as well.

Innovation will be essential to meeting our climate change targets. Believe me, all countries - including the US - will be moving forward - to reduce emissions, to find less carbon intensive means to grow their economies.

The most innovative countries will be in the lead - producing cars that emit less, fuel that is cleaner, and energy efficient technologies. By taking action now, our industries will gain a competitive edge.

We are refining our implementation strategy. Talking with individual sectors about approaches designed to work in Canada. For Canadian firms. Providing the certainty investors require.

The federal government will lead by example.

Through investments in a partnership fund for climate change action. Through encouraging the use of cleaner alternatives such as ethanol and biodiesel. And through the greening of our own operations. Such as our large vehicle fleets. Buildings. And so on.

In the days and weeks ahead, you will see us taking concrete action on climate change. In our own areas of responsibility. And in partnership with industry, communities, and provinces.

Fuel cells; renewable electricity; biofuels and products; energy efficient buildings and houses.

Canada has expertise in these areas. Making the right choices now will allow us to be ahead of the curve in North America and global markets. And all Canadians will benefit.

We will also apply learning and knowledge to enhance another Canadian advantage: health care. Our commitment to the number one priority of Canadians is unshakable. We will work with provinces to respond to Roy Romanow.

We will develop a plan. And we will make the necessary investments to sustain Medicare for the long term.

I am proud of the achievements of this government. Canadians are rightly proud. But there is much more to do.

Government will continue to be a big player as we move forward to achieve our goals. The private sector has the larger role.

We need your energy. Your ideas and advice about learning, knowledge, and making Canada a magnet for the best the world has to offer. We need you to challenge yourselves every day as I have challenged you tonight.

Canada, indeed, can use ongoing advice about the big choices we must make on our innovation agenda. For this reason, I am revitalizing the Prime Minister`s Advisory Council on Science and Technology.

Allan Rock met with them just this afternoon. To seek their guidance on the eve of this important summit.

Becoming a Learning Society. A Knowledge Society. Having Smart Regulations, Creating Clusters. Valuing Diversity, and moving forward on an Urban Strategy - a quality of life agenda for our communities- this is our Action Plan on Innovation.

I am pushing my government very hard on it. And seeing results.

But we need you to push too. Acting on it together, I know, will ensure that Canada becomes a magnet for investment and talent. That it becomes the Canada we want. I know we can do it.

I wish you all well in your work in the day ahead. Get a good sleep.

Thank you.

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