An auspicious beginning

Introduction by Mike Lazaridis

A quarter century ago, a Senate Special Committee published a report entitled, A Science Policy for Canada. The report was the culmination of an exhaustive inquiry that included testimony from more than 1,000 scientists and research administrators. The committee concluded: "For the first time in our economic history, we must become an innovative nation." What was an insightful and prescient truth in 1973 is an urgent call to action in the 21st century.

Today, the use of innovations based on advanced technology is so ubiquitous that we often take it for granted. However, we must never forget the engine responsible for computers, airplanes, microwave ovens and even espresso machines. These products would not be possible without the application of decades of scientific research.

Canada has certainly produced a number of world-class scientific innovations over the last 25 years, but much needs to be done to secure a robust culture and infrastructure for the long haul. We are in the midst of an unprecedented restructuring of the world economy, where wealth is increasingly created from the application of knowledge. In the 21st century, Canada's prosperity will flow from innovative new products and services in industries such as transportation, telecommunications, power generation, aerospace, and medicine.

Seeing this future, the Government of Ontario began to actively foster the creation of a knowledge economy driven by research and innovation. Along with other important initiatives, the Ontario Innovation Trust was created to provide funding that scientists and researchers needed to create laboratories with the best available equipment and supplies. The Trust was motivated in part by a demonstrable loss of critical talent in important fields to the United States.

Another impetus for the OIT was a change in policy of the federal government and its establishment of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. After years of Canadian scientists living in a technological poorhouse, trying to cadge time on machines in other countries, Ottawa set up a $3.2 billion fund to refurbish Canadian laboratories. The CFI initiative, however, required funding from multiple sources. CFI could provide 40 per cent of eligible project costs. The provinces were challenged to contribute another 40 per cent while the remainder had to come from other sources.

In 1999, Queen's Park allotted $750 million to the OIT to be allocated for physical research infrastructure and the purchase of new research equipment. From its inception, OIT was not just a source of money for the equipment to help scientists and researchers explore worthy ideas. OIT-supported projects also had to demonstrate the possibility of practical application, of improving the province's capacity for innovation, of stimulating economic growth and better health and environmental quality. Training and retention of personnel were also imperative. OIT sought to promote partnerships and sharing, and its projects had to open up the way to collaboration with the private sector.

Those were the explicit purposes of the OIT, but they suggest a number of responsibilities we all share. First and foremost, we must provide all of our young people with the opportunity to receive as much education as possible. To this end, we must have strong and well-funded universities and colleges. We must also foster a culture of scientific excellence and entrepreneurship - a sense that making new businesses from research findings is critical to our future.

OIT helped foster such a culture in meaningful, concrete ways. That is perhaps its most enduring legacy.