Waterloo Region holds 2/3s of Canada’s startups, according to Conference Board CEO.
by Trevor Stafford on August 9th, 2010In a speech entitled “Canada’s innovation conundrum“, Conference Board of Canada President and CEO Anne Golden has praise for Waterloo Region, and concern for Canada’s future.
At the root of her concern is this nation’s productivity gap, the gulf that isolates our research and ingenuity from the jobs, wealth and centrifugal spin-off of commercial enterpise. She goes on to tackle the overt and transparent issues that contribute to Canada’s innovation surfeit, earning us the dubious honour of 14th place among 17 developed nations.
But the fact is that the so-called “technology research triangle” of Kitchener/Waterloo-Cambridge-Guelph, home of the BlackBerry inventor, Research-in-Motion, accounts for about two-thirds of Canada’s high-tech start-ups(click for source).
Golden’s speech is far too long to summarize here, nor is it the proper forum. But her three priorities are worth noting.
Priority One: Canada’s governments, working with industry, should support a small number of targeted niche areas where Canada can grow globally competitive high-tech industries.
Priority Two: Governments should invest strategically in the infrastructure of Canada’s major cities where most innovation occurs
Priority Three: We should boost business investment (incl. venture capital) in R&D and state-of-the-art equipment.
Can Canada acquire this kind of entrepreneurial spirit? An interesting question, much debated. In his study of the evolution of the Canadian character The Unfinished Canadian, Andrew Cohen (President of The Historica-Dominion Institute) argues that we are a country that likes to cut off its tall poppies, a country that resents rather than celebrates its success.
So I present two questions to you: What makes Waterloo Region thrive entrepreneurially, and what can Canada do to spur innovation?
