Making Canada More Productive, Competitive and Resilient

Public Policy Forum Conference will Lead to Innovation Blue Print Strategy

TORONTO, May 27 /CNW Telbec/ - Leaders from across Canada gathered today in Toronto to develop an innovation blue print strategy designed to make Canada an innovation champion.

The one-day national conference, Innovation Next, organized by the Public Policy Forum capped a 15-city regional roundtable series held across Canada to develop the next phase of innovation. Conference participants included private sector CEOs, federal and provincial senior officials, university and college leaders, and representatives of NGOs who are playing a significant role in innovation in Canada.

"The Public Policy Forum has brought together a number of senior leaders from all sectors in Canada to focus on innovation. Our goal for this multi-sector dialogue is quite simple: to foster the development of a stronger culture and practice of innovation in Canada," said David J. Mitchell, President of the Public Policy Forum. "Our dialogue is focused on ideas and actions that can serve as a catalyst for innovation. We will produce a blueprint and action plan for the next stage of innovation in Canada - focused on specific actions to make our country more productive, competitive and resilient."

"To ensure its future prosperity, Canada must move to the next stage of innovation," said Mark Lievonen, President of Sanofi Pasteur. "Our company has to continually reinvent itself to remain competitive, and so do government policies for innovation drivers such as the implementation of a world class intellectual property regime."

Eight Key Themes

The Innovation Next blueprint strategy will be based on the eight key themes and areas developed in the regional roundtables to set the next stage of innovation in Canada. The eight themes are:

    
    -  It's not about more money: A comprehensive innovation strategy must
       include better coordination of policy tools, current investments and
       leadership capacity

    -  Governments as partners and not leaders: Government is not the primary
       answer to driving innovation, but the policy, regulatory and
       investment frameworks they put in place are critical

    -  It's about people: The most important focus in innovation should be on
       people and talent development, as well as the cultural development and
       recognition of entrepreneurs

    -  We don't know each other as well as we should: We need to create and
       sustain systems that allow innovators and collaborators to better
       connect across the country

    -  Winning matters: Winners are already established, based on their
       success, and we need to collectively move the best of these from local
       or national success to true global leaders

    -  We are better off than we think: We should better acknowledge and
       measure innovation that transpires in traditional sectors such as
       natural resources

    -  Play to, and not away from, our current strengths: Any innovation
       strategy needs to work from our existing strengths, including the
       valuable role played by our universities and colleges and the highly
       successful research support programs we have in place

    -  Build our global brand: Canada should better coordinate its global
       Innovation Brand to key emerging trade and educational markets.
    

For further information: Paul Ledwell, Vice-President, Public Policy Forum, [email protected], [phone]; David Rodier, NATIONAL Public Relations, [email protected], [phone]