Thank you very much.
This morning, I'm going to talk to you about the role of innovation in the agriculture and agri-food field.
First, I should put the agri-food industry in a regional perspective. In eastern Quebec, the agri-food sector, including agriculture, generates 8% of regional GDP, compared to 7% for all of Quebec. We're talking about 16,000 jobs in the region, 20% of total regional employment. So this is a fundamentally important sector for the region.
In a series of articles published in Le Soleil in December 2005, the following headline appeared concerning the Quebec bio-food industry: “A gold mine for major cities and regions”. The article reported an average growth rate of 3.8%, compared to 2.5% for the Quebec economy as a whole. That remarkable performance of the agri-food sector was essentially due to value-added production. That seems quite promising, but what challenges are we facing? Those challenges can be classified in three categories: the productivity of businesses in the face of globalization, preserving quality of the environment and the aging of the population.
With respect to productivity, we know that, in 2006, Canada slid down the economic competitiveness rankings to sixteenth in the world. In Quebec and even Toronto, people claim that our labour force is responsible for the lack of competitiveness. I think that explanation is simplistic. To be more competitive, businesses located elsewhere in the world invest in research and development and in renewing their technological stock. However, our businesses have been content—and here I'm speaking in general, not specific terms in the agri-food field—just to take advantage of the weak exchange rate on the Canadian dollar in producing at competitive prices and exporting.
As for the environment, farming practices are increasingly being called into question by environmentalists and citizens. There is every reason to believe that, in the coming years, the environment will remain a central concern for citizens. Our businesses must therefore adjust to this situation, which can also be a source of new opportunities.
As for the aging of the population, this phenomenon will clearly have an impact on the agri-food sector, particularly on the labour force, the transfer of farms and the size of businesses. However, it will bring new opportunities for the industry. We note that consumers are increasingly concerned about food safety, the consumption of so-called health food products and health in general, a concern that agri-food can address.
As regards innovation, it must be understood that our society is increasingly urban. More than 80% of the population lives in urban areas. Major economic thinkers tell us that we should invest in biotechnology and aerospace, as well as in the financial, software and pharmaceuticals industries, sectors which are said to generate wealth. But for whom do they generate wealth? For the major centres and the big cities like Montreal and Toronto. What's being done about the regions and agri-food?
Earlier I mentioned to you that it had been statistically proven that the agri-food industry could bring about development. Our experts and thinkers will have to consider the opportunities afforded by the multifunctionality of rural land and the bioeconomy in the context of post-industrial society's changing concerns about quality of the environment and health.
Canada and Quebec have a green advantage that can be a source of opportunities that must be seized in various industries such as specialty products, decentralized processing technologies and agri-materials such as bioplastics and biofuels, in particular.
Adequately supported by experts, rural areas are capable of innovating and producing added value by developing the bioresources in their areas in a sustainable manner. By innovating and reinventing agriculture, it will be possible to secure the future of our rural areas.
In closing, I'd like to emphasize that, in all the analyses that have been conducted, and even in the development of the first Canadian Agricultural Policy Framework, it has been proven that there is a deficiency in the chain of innovation in the area of technology transfer. We must ensure that the research and research findings get to the businesses. Collectively, Quebec and Canadian society has established research centres, centres of expertise, but, in my view, they unfortunately operate more or less in a closed circuit. I think it is high time we changed this situation. How do we go about changing it? We need to mobilize stakeholders and to create synergies with other players, like the training institutions established in the territory?
College-level agriculture and agri-food training institutions account for 80% of students considering a career in agriculture and agri-food. These people are the future, and they are able to introduce innovations and to relay the information to businesses. They are credible agents of change. We have training institutions across the territory, and those institutions, more specifically in Quebec, are not being used to their full potential. We could consider using training institutions as primary partners for technology transfer. These institutions are already working with future farmers; they are training them and they are also training future agricultural consultants, as well as farmers and consultants through continuing training. So this is an environment that is highly conducive to technology transfer, a weak area that has previously been identified and which, to my knowledge, has not been corrected as of this time.
The attempt that was made was to put agents of technology transfer in the research centres and universities. Pardon me, but it didn't work, and it won't work that way. We have to be close to the agents of change and to rely, bet on youth.
Strictly by way of example, I'm going to mention to you that, if you consider the situation in Quebec, three college-level agriculture and agri-food training institutions have 1,200 students and reach more than 5,600 individuals a year through continuing training. These are resources that are out there, that are available and that can be put to work. So instead of working in isolation, why not create synergies with institutions and organizations that already exist? In my opinion, that's what's lacking. If we want our agriculture to be competitive in the years to come, yes, we have to rely on innovation, and the way to introduce innovation is by working in networks.
Agrobiopole is a coalition of centres of expertise, training institutions and economic development agencies that want to work together to create an environment conducive to the emergence and growth of innovative businesses in the regional agri-food sector. To do that, there will also have to be policies that support this type of research.
Thank you very much.