Thank you Madam Chair. It's an honour to be with you today.
The subject of your talk—the successes, challenges and opportunities for science in contemporary Canada—is one of the most paramount issues of our time. We live in one of the most scientifically intense times in world history. Most of the scientists who have ever lived—when you define “scientist” in western terms—are actually alive today. The number is growing at a very dramatic pace, particularly in China and East Asia, and moving across the rest of the world.
We've now come to see science not as something by itself for academic purposes, but as something crucial to economic competitiveness. Governments are investing very heavily and are shifting their attention away from where it used to be, which is on the science of discovery, toward the whole question of science for the commercial benefit, the benefit of society as a whole, so there's a little bit of tension between pure science and that of practical, productive and commercial developments.
Canada has struggled to keep up in this enterprise. We try. We're earnest, as we always are in Canada. Like most countries, we've actually followed a very simple equation, which I call the “innovation equation”. We put a whole bunch of money into post-secondary education; Canada is a world leader in that area. Investing heavily in basic science, we do okay; we're not top of the list, but we're not terrible, either. Then, we put a whole bunch of money into the commercialization of scientific and technological discoveries. We do well on the inputs—we put money in for incubators and things of that sort—but we don't do all that well on the outputs in terms of creating great economic activity.
We have a situation in Canada where our scientists are actually doing very well. We have a high, better than expected return, but economically, it's not so great. We have some really bright lights: Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. Watch what's happening in Prince Edward Island, Sherbrooke, Saskatoon, Kelowna and Victoria.
Innovation, not just in Canada but around the world, has become more imitative than innovative. In fact, innovation is no longer an innovative element within our society as a whole.
I suggest that Canada has to consider a series of specific changes. We don't have a plan for what Canada looks like when it's a technologically enabled nation. What is the vision for a science-based country? We need very much to give our scientists, our technologists and our companies something to build towards. We need to recognize the uneven access to the benefits of science and technology: high-quality education, not uniform across the country; access to the Internet, not uniform; the availability of practical high technologies.... What we're actually seeing is the strengthening of what I call “city states” in Canada, a widening gap between rural areas and small towns, and the further marginalization of indigenous people and the urban poor.
I think we also have to make much better use of government as an agent for change, using the government and their spending power as a positive agent for change. We watch this happening in Israel. We see it happening in Estonia, in Taiwan, in India, but not as much in Canada, which is unfortunate.
We also have to greatly improve our speed of decision-making. Decision-making has to match the speed of innovation and the speed of global business. Our current processes are cumbersome, slow and very predictable. We're not very much of a risk-taker.
I think we need to put a lot more emphasis on unique Canadian challenges by looking at providing health care in remote communities; dealing with a national housing crisis that is urban, rural and remote; rebuilding wildlife and fish stocks; and improving our resource extraction. We can solve Canadian problems first, and export technologies to the rest of the world.
We need to find a better balance between pure science and practical technological change. I would encourage your committee to look at the polytech sector, which does a really good job of taking the bench science and actually applying it in practical ways. I'm sure you're going to talk to these folks. I would encourage you to make sure this country invests in scientific literacy as well. One of our basic problems is that there is a huge gap among our politicians and civil servants, and the scientists and even the innovators who are working on the commercial side. They don't talk to each other particularly well, because the literacy is not as strong as we want it to be.
You have a very formidable challenge in front of you. Canada must be a country where the science and technology serves the legitimate and pressing needs of our country as whole. Money is part of the issue, but quite frankly, I think Canada needs to put more emphasis on direction, commitment and collective understanding. We have to know how scientific discovery can make us a better nation. We have to make us a wealthier nation and a stronger country. I think you have a formidable task in front of you.
I wish you all the very best in your deliberations. Thank you very much.