Thank you for the invitation to appear today.
We know that Canada has world-class researchers, but we're losing ground when it comes to turning ideas into market impacts, and that's where Tech-Access Canada comes in.
Tech-Access Canada is the national network of technology access centres. It's what some call the best-kept secret in Canadian R and D. The model has been studied by the OECD and is uniquely Canadian. Think of it as a public good like a lighthouse or a fire department, but for the innovation economy.
Our model is simple. We're based at publicly supported Canadian colleges and CEGEPs. We provide small companies with access to specialized equipment and world-class facilities and the experts who know how to use them. We help businesses commercialize faster, innovate on the shop floor and become more productive. Each centre focuses on sectors that matter most to their region.
Four things make us distinct. Together, they explain why 6,000 companies a year rely on us.
First is dedicated capacity. We employ 2,400 applied R and D specialists, from scientists to technologists to welders, working with 500 million dollars' worth of highly specialized equipment, all housed within two million square feet of dedicated applied R and D space at our 70 centres from coast to coast.
Second is industry-driven projects. Every project starts with a company's challenge, whether that's refining a prototype, extending food shelf life or integrating robotics into production. We solve problems in days, weeks and months—not years. We move at the speed of business.
Third is team-based innovation. Each project brings together a multidisciplinary team of R and D experts as well as college and university students, giving young people the chance to acquire sought-after hands-on innovation skills before they graduate.
Fourth is non-dilutive support. Companies keep the intellectual property. We take no equity stake, no royalties, and there are no strings attached. We give the companies the flexibility to get to market fast without scaring away potential funders.
This combination works. Each year, thousands of small and medium-sized Canadian businesses trust us to be their fractional R and D team accompanying them on their commercialization journey.
Let me take you back to 1993, when Canada was on top of the sports world. The Toronto Blue Jays were back-to-back World Series champions, and Patrick Roy and the Montreal Canadiens hoisted the Stanley Cup, defeating Wayne Gretzky. That wake-up call forced teams south of the border to change how they played. They shifted to using data analytics and deep benches of specialized role players, while Canada has been waiting decades for another World Series or Stanley Cup parade.
Our research system is in the same position. In the 1990s, Canada invested heavily in research excellence. By the measures of the time—world-class labs, international benchmarking, talent attraction and retention, and peer-reviewed science—we succeeded, but while we took a victory lap, other countries evolved their definition of excellence to include impact, inclusion and applied outcomes. The game changed, and we're still playing by 1990s rules.
What's the result? Canada is world-class at turning money into research but still struggles to turn research into money. Put another way, we're excellent at producing research, but we haven't yet cracked the code on consistently translating it into market impact. The data don't lie: Last year, Canadians paid $17 billion to license foreign IP, yet we took in only $8 billion from licensing made-in-Canada IP outside our borders. That's a nine-billion-dollar trade deficit. Over the last decade, that gap has added up to $80 billion.
Something has to change.
This isn't “either-or”. It's “and-and”. I strongly believe that basic and applied research both matter, but as Einstein once said, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it's stupid.