Author: Tim Lougheed

Opinion Leader: New report recommends playing to Alberta’s many strengths

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A new report from the Business Council of Alberta outlines several areas of strength that the province can use as the foundation for economic and R&D policy. The report cites agriculture, energy, and medicine as the three pillars of this strategy, with specific recommendations about how each sector should be managed.

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Editorial: Can anyone tell me why I need 5G?

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Purveyors of 5G hardware are eager to tell us how important this technology will be for Canadian innovation, but new goods and services arising from this technology are likely to come from its users, not necessarily its manufacturers. Although the Chinese firm Huawei was banned as a manufacturer, it remains an active partner with many of the early adopters of 5G systems, which raises questions about whether Canadians will enjoy any of the economic benefits generated by innovation carried out and supported by Canada. It is a tale as old as the inventor of fire, who reaped few rewards compared with those learned how to work with fire.

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Canada looks to own another podium

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Waterloo-based business accelerator Communitech has announced the roster of Team True North, which consists of Canadian firms that are poised to grow to at least $1 billion in revenue by 2030. The methodology for identifying these enterprises is similar to the highly successful Own the Podium initiative, which dramatically increased Canada’s Olympic medal count.

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Good to Know: Canada first

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“We can solve Canadian problems first, and export technologies to the rest of the world.”             Ken Coates, Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation, University of Saskatchewan, testifying before the Standing Committee on Science and Research on the question of a national science strategy could be applied to Canada’s economic advantage.

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Good to Know

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“The time is now for all stakeholders — funders, institutions, publishers and researchers — to consider how we can work together to dismantle systemic legacies of exclusion.” From an editorial in Nature, published 30 May 2022, outlining the journal’s new policy to address the problem of “helicopter research” — when researchers from high-income settings conduct…

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Innovation waits for its Covid moment

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Innovations once seen as threatening can turn out to be immensely useful and welcome, as circumstances change to enable them to provide positive economic or social benefits.

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