I'm glad you asked that question, but I think it demands a lot more clarification.
Canada is catching up with the other G7 countries. We need a “sandbox” in order to have innovation. We're getting better at it, but the other G7 countries all have a fairly similar system. Why? We know that in certain industries, innovation calls for a “sandbox”. In that small space, we can innovate. We can set bureaucracy aside and innovate. This is a fairly common practice in G7 countries. Most of our colleagues do the same; I even checked that this morning.
I saw the article, but I think it overlooks a lot of necessary distinctions. If you read international reports on innovation, you'll see that it's fairly common, at least in G7 countries.