Canada is at its most prosperous when all Canadians have a fair chance at success. That is why Canada must focus on innovation to deliver real change for the middle class and those working hard to join it.
The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, has put forward a vision to build Canada as a global centre of innovation – one that focuses on strengthening the middle class by creating jobs, driving growth across all industries and improving the lives of all Canadians.
“Government cannot act alone if Canadians expect to see meaningful results. Every sector of society has a role to play in ensuring that all Canadians have the opportunity to participate fully in an innovation economy. That’s why we are inviting Canadians to offer their solutions on how to foster a culture of innovation. By making innovation a national priority, we ensure that Canada’s middle class continues to thrive, with good-paying jobs for a highly skilled and educated workforce,” stated Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
To achieve this vision, the government of Canada will focus on six areas for action:
- Promoting an entrepreneurial and creative society
- Supporting global science excellence
- Building world-leading clusters and partnerships
- Growing companies and accelerating clean growth
- Competing in a digital world
- Improving ease of doing business.
These six action areas, which form the Government of Canada’s Innovation Agenda, has been the focus of a summer-long period of public engagement that will result in an action plan. Central to this plan will be a call to action to all sectors of society. Clear outcomes and targets will be used to measure progress toward the vision of positioning Canada as a global leader in skilled talent as well as the development of new products, services, business models and markets across all industries.
Hosting a roundtable discussion on September 8, 2016 at the Oakville Chamber of Commerce, business leaders and researchers from the Oakville community actively participated in proposing ways to make Canada a global leader in innovation and developing new markets. Many progressive ideas and concepts were put forward for consideration by the Government of Canada.
Individuals can submit their ideas and thoughts through the website, Canada.ca/Innovation. This will allow Canadians to share their ideas for positioning Canada as a world leader in turning ideas into solutions, science into technologies, skills into jobs and start-up companies into global successes.