Canada's innovation policies need overhaul to boost economy, experts say

Globe and Mail

4 hours ago

Canada's outdated innovation policies are causing a loss of economic sovereignty amid critical shifts in global trade relations and the knowledge-based economy, experts say.
While Canada continues to lead globally in education and research, innovation experts say the country's inability to plan past that phase is costing it hundreds of billions of dollars every year in data and intellectual property ownership. And with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement up for review in 2026, they argue the federal government should arrive at negotiations with a Canada-first approach.
Speaking Monday at the Intersect conference at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto, Jim Balsillie, former co-CEO of Research In Motion Ltd., said Canada needs to have an offensive strategy heading into USMCA negotiations.
'The most important thing is to learn how the economy works, know that the agreement isn't worth the paper it's printed on,' said Mr. Balsillie, who is also a co-founder and chair of the Canadian Council of Innovators.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. is leading a shift in global economic policy to become more aggressive and transactional, Mr. Balsillie said. This, added to the emergence in recent decades of a new, knowledge-based economy, has heightened the need for governments to defend their industries and IP.
Yet Canada continues to fall behind.
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'We've got this funny disease where everybody helps their companies, but we don't help ours. In fact, we subvert them,' he said, pointing to sticking points such as the highly controversial capital gains tax increase or the federal government's investments in foreign companies.
Mr. Balsillie also addressed Ottawa's claim that eliminating interprovincial trade barriers will add as much as $200-billion to the economy, calling it a 'myth' and a 'distraction.'
'The most meaningful barriers were addressed long ago. Clinging to this narrative distracts from creating serious national economic strategy,' he said.
Dan Breznitz, the Munk chair of innovation studies at the University of Toronto, touted the country's investments in fundamental research for technology such as artificial intelligence as world leading.
But that's where it stops, he said. When it comes time for companies to scale up and commercialize their research, they, unsurprisingly, go elsewhere.
'We just assumed that, somehow, because we have educated people and ideas, magic will happen in the market,' Prof. Breznitz said.
'Instead people do the rational thing: They look around and they say, 'It's almost impossible to do it in Canada.''
On Monday morning, while Prof. Breznitz was addressing the crowd at the Fairmont, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he would ensure that Canada hits NATO's target to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence this fiscal year.
Prof. Breznitz said that's important – but not the kind of transformational policy Canada needs right now, after 20 years of slowly declining GDP numbers.
'We've got a prime minister that basically tells us right now, that if he will bring us back to that moment of slow decline, it will be the biggest transformation. I'm worried,' he said.
Canada needs to gain strategic control of its talent and research, he said. It needs to figure out how to capitalize on its valuable industries, such as critical minerals, and engage and invest in its own technology.
'It is not okay that we are the lowest, by far, in the G7 in buying and engaging with new technology,' he said.
Ultimately, Mr. Balsillie said, Canada's progress hinges on its ability to bring in and listen to new voices within its policymaking spaces who will help it adapt to the modern economy.
'The issue isn't only new ideas. It's escaping old ideas.'