OTTAWA – Canadians must lead as creators, innovators and adapters of next generation technologies, says a new white paper released by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATAAlliance).
Called Canada as a Competitive Innovation Nation: What Needs to be Done, the white paper argues that Canada has traditionally focused on the ‘R’ side of research and technology and not enough on creating environments that promote and reward commercialization successes.
The document also includes specific proposals for new initiatives aimed at improving the investment climate for commercialization and the support for commercialization as part of boosting Canada’s innovation and competiveness rankings as an Innovation Nation.
“Of mission critical importance, is our identification of efficiency gains that can be made to the Scientific Research & Experimental Development Program”, said CATA CEO John Reid, in a statement. “Not only could the effectiveness of the tax credits as incentives be significantly improved, but perhaps a billion dollars or more of the current spend on SR&ED could be freed up for redistribution.
“Our argument is that the federal government absolutely needs to redirect these major efficiency gains that we believe can be obtained from improving the SR&ED Program, and from the rationalization of federal direct support programs to new direct and indirect support activities, promoting successful commercialization of Canadian achievements; and the retention and growth of the benefits of these successes in Canada.”
