What I would say is that at post-secondary institutions there are many pockets of innovation. There are many institutions across the country--too many to name--that are doing interesting and innovative things.
What I would also say, however, is that many of the existing structures of funding, of rewards systems and so on, don't actually reinforce those behaviours. I think you have to recognize that many of the structures currently in place were developed many, many years ago when R and D in the telecom sector meant that Bell-Northern Research was trying to figure out how to stuff more information down pipes or how to do it wirelessly. Those things are still important, but we know that a lot of the opportunities, especially in the e-commerce space, are very fast and require different models of development.
So while we have to continue to support discovery-based research--it's critically important to Canada and to the universities in particular--I think new mechanisms to promote these kinds of partnerships, market-driven research, and experiential learning for students are hugely important, because we know that youth unemployment in Canada is a really serious problem. We've been very lucky and are not a victim of what that can lead to, but I do worry. If we don't find ways to break that catch-22 for young people and for immigrants--if you don't have the experience, you can't get the job, and you can't get the job because you don't have the experience--we're going to run into problems. That's why I think innovation and thinking of new and creative ways to tap those skills are critically important.