Thank you.
I think you have our submission before you.
Mr. Chair, members, it's a privilege to be here today.
Trojan Technologies is based in London, Ontario, and has been treating water with ultraviolet light since 1977. Trojan Technologies remains a Canadian corporation, although in November 2004, with annual sales of roughly $100 million, the company was wholly sold to Danaher Corporation of Washington.
Our growth has continued at a double digit rate, and our global reach is expanding. The majority of our roughly 500 employees are located in London, Ontario. Our sales are heavily global, and we have installed technology on every continent. Our considerable focus on research and development has allowed us to continue to innovate to bring clean water to an increasingly water-stressed world. We believe that out-innovating our competition is a key strength of our company.
Trojan Technologies has always invested heavily in S and T, but S and T isn't just about doing beautiful research or building wonderful technologies; often it's about building the market itself, and doing that profitably. Research itself--and we do fundamental research sometimes--can't be justified in business if it cannot be tied to business expectations. How, then, can we enhance S and T initiatives in Canada to have greater impact on our global competitiveness?
Challenges in successful S and T initiatives can often exist for us on the deployment end. Once the research and development is done, new environmental technologies need to be tested and purchased by a few alpha sites before they are readily accepted by others and before a market can develop. There is a requirement here for government agencies at many levels to facilitate the testing and adoption of new technologies by having qualified staff capable of conducting testing and rendering decisions of suitability in a timely fashion. The world economy is becoming ever faster paced, and timeliness of technology validation cannot be measured in years, or parts of years, when the natural scientific timelines do not warrant such delays.
In addition, staff at government agencies must be sufficiently educated and informed to be able to request or receive information to make informed judgments. The more educated and skilled these adjudicators are, the less risk there is for all. Education and skills should be obtained with the recognition that we are a small economy in a global sense, that consolidation of regulatory requirements within Canada is efficient, and that we must avail ourselves of the knowledge and practice that exists globally.
From a client’s perspective, purchasing new environmental technology can be seen as being a bit risky. Government incentives for the purchase of new environmental technologies can be very helpful in changing the perceived risk for a purchaser.
This sort of program in the U.S. was highly beneficial to Trojan 30 years ago when we started building the technology and market for our products. Such programs, if continued throughout the environmental sector, would likely serve to stimulate more innovation and, equally importantly, establish a climate within Canada for acceptance of innovation. The new technology, demonstrated to work in real life within Canada, becomes saleable internationally, helping to grow the Canadian economy.
The first installations are key, and these demonstration sites continue to be vital for our industry. Wouldn’t it be nice if the first full-scale demonstrations of Canadian technology were easier to conduct in Canada than elsewhere? This does not mean that regulations and requirements for technology should be slack. Canadian regulations should be robust, and regulators and their staff should be informed, aware, and empowered, and execute their roles quickly and thoroughly.
On the front end of S and T we work with Canadian and international universities, tending to go where the expertise exists. Trojan benefited significantly in its infancy by participating in IRAP, whose small grants helped to fund essential research when moneys were extremely tight. The best experiences were always those that were executed quickly.
As the company has grown and become more profitable, SR and ED tax credits are a very efficient and effective means to support research and development. It is our recommendation that this tax credit remain.
The challenges in working with universities surround negotiations around intellectual property rights and managing public disclosure of findings that give strategic business advantage. In addition, the timelines of industry and those of universities are sometimes not aligned. We see the same challenges internationally, but perhaps therein is the possibility to distinguish ourselves as a country. There is a change at universities in Canada toward welcoming industrial participation in research, and that is very good because it is our collective knowledge, our collective value-added, and our collective focus on targeted research that will accelerate the innovation process.
Perhaps agencies such as NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC, and others could facilitate industrial researchers' participating at Canadian universities by offering career awards in the form of salary contributions toward qualified industrial researchers who wish to spend sabbaticals at Canadian universities. Bringing industrial researchers closer to universities and their students will also show graduate students that a life in research can mean a life in business and entrepreneurship, impacting global problems and benefiting the Canadian economy.
We have shared a few experiences and thoughts with you, hoping to be helpful. We are privileged to have been given this opportunity to participate in this forum.
I thank you.
