High time for high tech: experts knowledge-based economy
Feds' plan offers hope for Hamilton in its struggle to build a
March 04, 2010
Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/732430
Hamilton's struggle to build an economy based on knowledge rather than muscles got the hint of a promise of help from the federal government in yesterday's throne speech.
The document, which opens a new session of Parliament by giving a general statement of the government's intentions, promised increased support for research, development, commercialization and other efforts aimed at getting the country back to work.
According to the text of the speech: "The relentless pace of technology means that every day there is something newer, faster, better. To succeed in the global economy, Canada must keep step as the world races forward.
"Our strategy is clear: we must combine the best of our intellectual and natural resources to create jobs, growth and opportunity."
Initiatives aimed at meeting that goal include increased support for skills, apprenticeships and training; increased support for top graduates to pursue post-doctoral studies and to commercialize their ideas; development of a nation science and technology strategy; a digital economy strategy; and tougher intellectual property and copyright laws.
Support for the development of space-based technologies, especially in support of Arctic sovereignty, was also promised, as was an easing of foreign investment laws to draw capital into key sectors such as the satellite and telecommunications industries and more free trade agreements.
Those general intentions sound good, say experts in commercialization and economics development. More important will be specific policies, some of which might be contained in today's federal budget.
Ty Shadduck, senior partner and co-founder of research commercialization firm Trivaris, says there is a gap between raw, innovative ideas and turning them into products and services that can generate wealth.
Progress is being made but "we're not at the point where these new types of companies, from an employment perspective, have overtaken traditional sectors. The sprouts of ideas are coming up, but we're not in the harvesting phase."
A recent study for the Hamilton Training and Adjustment Board captured some of that shift, noting that, since 1987, the city has lost 26,200 manufacturing positions, but gained more than 40,000 jobs in the professional-scientific-technical, transportation, education and health sectors.
Neil Everson, director of the city's economic development department, welcomed anything that will push Hamilton along the transition road it has been travelling for more than two decades.
"Any community that isn't making that transition is in trouble today," he said. "We just can't compete with the low-wage countries, no city in Canada or North America can do that."
The key is industries based on advanced techniques -- the kind of advanced manufacturing for which companies such as ArcelorMittal Dofasco are well-known.
Getting to that new promised land, he added, will also require a focus on education. Hamilton has an advantage there through Mohawk College and McMaster University -- an advantage that could be bolstered with some improvements in the math, science and technology skills of high school graduates.
"We can't have a knowledge economy without the people to staff those companies," Everson said. "Education is going to play a fundamental role in our economic future."
The HTAB study reinforced that need, noting about 210,000 of Hamilton's employment-age population have only a high school education or less -- and the 2006 census showed only 65 per cent of people who stopped education after high school were employed. For those with less than high school, the employment figure was only 35 per cent.
MP Wayne Marston, the NDP member for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, said the real measure of the Harper government's sincerity will be found in today's budget.
"They're talking about the new economy and we know Canadian ingenuity can make us leaders in that economy, but they're going to have to support it with some dollars," Martson said.
"They've thrown some signals that they're willing to invest in that area."