Good morning. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today.
I've just come from our big thinking lecture on the Hill where York University's Philip Kelly spoke about the educational and employment outcomes of the children of immigrants. He's spending the rest of the day meeting with senior civil servants and MPs who are taking advantage of his time in Ottawa. This is par for the course for lecturers of big thinking, our longstanding program that connects the policy-makers and users of research with experts in our disciplines.
Next month we're bringing in University of Calgary tax and economic expert Jack Mintz, who advised us on our submission to the Jenkins panel. With the release of Monday's report, Jack's perspectives on where Canada stands in the global economy will be timely.
While their expertise varies, these people have much in common. They're addressing urgent matters that are on the minds of leaders, policy-makers, and Canadians.
Today, with the support of the granting agencies, notably the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and other funding mechanisms, our students and researchers are tackling everything from cybercrime to aging to aboriginal education to digital media.
To be sure, some of the impacts of this work are not always easily measured, but that doesn't mean the impacts aren't real. Our students and researchers are in communities across the country, making tangible contributions every day. For example, University of Northern British Columbia researchers developed innovative commercial solutions to help sustain the $13 billion forestry sector after the pine beetle infestation devastated 80% of merchantable lumber.
The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study is one of only 11 projects worldwide to receive an IBM centennial grant dedicated to improving health and social service delivery to Ottawa residents and neighbourhoods.
Researchers at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières have developed tools that make it possible to increase the flexibility, reaction time and capacity for innovation. These tools are currently being used in over 600 SMEs in Canada.
It's no wonder that Google recently announced plans to hire around 5,000 employees from the liberal arts. This is the logical extension of the advice delivered by Don Tapscott and dozens of other Canadian high-tech CEOs 10 years ago, and I'm quoting:
To prosper we need creative thinkers at all levels of the enterprise who are comfortable dealing with decisions in the bigger context. They must be able to communicate - to reason, create, write, and speak - for shared purposes....
Contrary to what some would have you believe, this need still persists. Workers who understand how people in different contexts think and behave are invaluable to productivity and prosperity. This will be even more essential as Canada moves forward into the knowledge-centred and digital economy. By more effectively harnessing and pairing diverse types of knowledge and by stimulating more research of all kinds, we believe Canada can achieve greater success by developing its comparative advantage, a knowledgeable, nimble, and globally connected citizenry and workforce.
With Budget 2011, we welcome the increased funding for the granting agencies, particularly for SSHRC, and the explicit acknowledgement of the important role for the humanities and social sciences in our society.
To take advantage of this situation, we recommend that the committee take into consideration the following three elements for the 2012 budget: first, maintaining investments in federal granting agencies and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation; second, greater support for cross-sector collaboration; third, more opportunities for students to display their talents in a wide range of businesses with real and often unmet research needs.
Michael Allen, president and CEO of United Way Canada, said it best when the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study received IBM support.
By bringing these partners together from academia, social services, government and business, we are leveraging each sector’s expertise to ensure we have the greatest impact and enable positive change....
Ladies and gentlemen, as this committee carefully grapples with how to nurture an innovation system and generate better results in a financially constrained climate, it's a responsible decision to protect and sustain what we've built. Let's be strategic. Let's be holistic. And let's work together to bolster the whole. To fail to do so would jeopardize the momentum Canada has enviably generated in this innovation race.
Thank you.