An economic resurgence for Hamilton

[SteelTown]

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."

[thistleclub]

More details from yesterday's Throne Speech:

Building the Jobs and Industries of the Future

Industry and ingenuity have been the hallmarks of Canada’s economy since the beginning. Aboriginal peoples, voyageurs and pioneers established the backbone of our modern trading nation. Immigrants armed only with dreams and determination travelled west to open the land that would become our breadbasket. Bright minds with bold ideas transformed sound and electricity into the communications network that links our world.

But today we face new challenges. Determined new competitors are rising. 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.

• The success of Canada’s economy depends on a skilled and educated workforce. Through Canada’s Economic Action Plan, our Government will continue to provide enhanced support for skills, apprenticeships and training for Canadian workers. It will make timely information on labour market opportunities available for all Canadians, especially in the area of the skilled trades. It will expand the opportunities for our top graduates to pursue post-doctoral studies and to commercialize their ideas.

• Our Government will also work hand-in-hand with Aboriginal communities and provinces and territories to reform and strengthen education, and to support student success and provide greater hope and opportunity.

• To fuel the ingenuity of Canada’s best and brightest and bring innovative products to market, our Government will build on the unprecedented investments in Canada’s Economic Action Plan by bolstering its Science and Technology Strategy. It will launch a digital economy strategy to drive the adoption of new technology across the economy. To encourage new ideas and protect the rights of Canadians whose research, development and artistic creativity contribute to Canada’s prosperity, our Government will also strengthen laws governing intellectual property and copyright.

• Canada has been a spacefaring nation for nearly 50 years. Our Government will extend support for advanced research, development and prototyping of new space-based technologies, especially in support of Arctic sovereignty.

• Low taxes are already helping Canada attract the investment needed to turn ideas into products and services. Our Government will keep tax rates competitive and low, while taking aggressive steps to close unfair tax loopholes that allow a few businesses and individuals to take advantage of hard-working Canadians who pay their fair share.

• Our Government will open Canada’s doors further to venture capital and to foreign investment in key sectors, including the satellite and telecommunications industries, giving Canadian firms access to the funds and expertise they need. While safeguarding Canada’s national security, our Government will ensure that unnecessary regulation does not inhibit the growth of Canada’s uranium mining industry by unduly restricting foreign investment. It will also expand investment promotion in key markets.

• Ensuring the broadest possible market for Canada’s goods and services will require the aggressive pursuit of free trade. Our Government will implement free trade agreements with Peru and the European Free Trade Association and ask Parliament to ratify new agreements with Colombia, Jordan and Panama. Given the disappointing results of the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations and the rapidly evolving global marketplace, our Government will aggressively diversify opportunities for Canadian business through bilateral trade agreements. It will continue trade negotiations with the European Union, India, the Republic of Korea, the Caribbean Community and other countries of the Americas. Building on the successful negotiation of new or expanded air agreements with 50 countries around the world, our Government will pursue additional agreements to achieve more competition, more choice for Canadians and more economic growth.

• Our Government will also build upon the recent agreement that gives Canadian companies permanent access to state and local government procurement in the United States.

Canada’s strategy for economic success must leverage our considerable strengths, in particular our world-leading financial industry and energy resource endowment.

• The unique strength of Canada’s financial industry set Canada apart during the global financial crisis. The World Economic Forum, among others, has recognized Canada’s banking system as the strongest in the world. Our Government will build upon this advantage to make Canada an even stronger world financial centre. Recognizing the critical importance of sound securities regulation – both to attract investment and crack down on white-collar crime – our Government will act, within the ambit of the Constitution, to create a Canadian securities regulator.

• Our energy resource endowment provides Canada with an unparalleled economic advantage that we must leverage to secure our place as a clean energy superpower and a leader in green job creation. We are the world’s seventh largest crude oil producer with the second largest proven reserves. We are the third largest natural gas producer, the third largest hydroelectric generator, the largest producer of uranium, and by far the largest supplier of energy resources to the world’s largest marketplace. To support responsible development of Canada’s energy and mineral resources, our Government will untangle the daunting maze of regulations that needlessly complicates project approvals, replacing it with simpler, clearer processes that offer improved environmental protection and greater certainty to industry.

• Our Government will continue to invest in clean energy technologies. It will review energy-efficiency and emissions-reduction programs to ensure they are effective. And it will position Canada’s nuclear industry to capitalize on the opportunities of the global nuclear renaissance – beginning with the restructuring of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

Finally, our strategy for the economy must create the conditions for continued success in the industries that are the foundation for Canada’s prosperity and support thousands of communities, both rural and urban.

• Our Government will partner with the forest industry to enter new markets and deploy new technologies, while respecting the Softwood Lumber Agreement with the United States.

• It will introduce new legislation to reform Canada’s outdated system of fisheries management.

• It will take steps to support a competitive livestock industry and pursue market access for agricultural products. Our Government will also ensure the freedom of choice for which Western barley farmers overwhelmingly voted, and it will continue to defend supply management of dairy and poultry products.

• Small and medium-sized businesses are the engines of the Canadian economy, responsible for the creation of most new jobs. To support them, our Government will continue to identify and remove unnecessary, job-killing regulation and barriers to growth.

• It will take further steps to support the competitiveness of Canadian manufacturers. And recognizing the strategic importance of a strong domestic shipbuilding industry, it will continue to support the industry’s sustainable development through a long-term approach to federal procurement.

• Our Government will also explore ways to better protect workers when their employers go bankrupt.

[thistleclub]

Plan doesn't impress locally
'They set the bar low ... and didn't even clear that bar'

Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
(Mar 5, 2010)

Local observers are unimpressed by yesterday's budget after earlier promises of an aggressive plan to prepare Canada for the economy of the future.

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty called the effort "a jobs and growth budget," designed to secure long-term growth for the country.

"Canada's history shows what a free people served by good government can accomplish together. We are at a key moment in that history, as we emerge from the global recession. Our government means to be a partner in Canada's recovery, not an obstacle to its growth."

To do that, the budget promised:

* $3.2 billion in personal income-tax cuts by raising the point at which tax is due, tax breaks for the working poor, higher child benefits and lower taxes for low and middle-income seniors;

* $4 billion for job creation including more employment insurance benefits and training opportunities;

* $7.7 billion in infrastructure stimulus;

* $2.2 billion in industrial support including the elimination of tariffs on manufacturing inputs and equipment and the creation of free-trade zones for goods imported for further manufacturing in Canada.

Stoney Creek accountant Alan Rowell, president of The Accounting Place, was mystified by the promised personal tax cuts.

"I see some small measures here that are going to be good for some people, but I don't see anything major," he said. "They're claiming to provide $3.2 billion in personal tax cuts, but I don't see it. There's nothing new here that I see."

NDP politicians Wayne Marston (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek), Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain) and David Christopherson (Hamilton Centre) said the document mostly re-announced programs included in the government's stimulus package from last year. They were also bitterly disappointed in what they said was a preference for corporate tax cuts rather than direct help for seniors.

"The government chose Corporate Canada over seniors living in poverty," Marston said. "There's billions here in corporate tax reductions, but that just shifts costs over to working families so the bottom line for me is there's no way we can support this budget as it's written."

Charlton also mocked tax cuts for big banks and companies while the poorest parents in the country will get a paltry $3.25 a week in increased Child Tax Benefit.

"In Wednesday's throne speech, they set the bar very low for themselves and today they didn't even clear that bar," she said.

With 1.5 million people officially unemployed in Canada and 810,000 facing the end of employment insurance benefits, Charlton said thousands of new cases will be added to local welfare roles, increasing the burden on homeowners already struggling.

"We've got monied people telling us the recession is over but, if you're an unemployed Hamilton worker, it is far from over," Christopherson said. "It's almost like the government has washed its hands of these people."

Municipal, business and academic observers found at least small items that pleased them, including:

* $600 million over three years in support for core research and commercialization;

* $45 million over five years to establish a post-doctoral fellowship program;

* $32 million in budget increases for Canada's research granting councils;

* $135 million over two years to the National Research Council Canada's regional innovation clusters program;

* $40 million over two years for a small business innovation commercialization program;

* $108 million for young worker internships and skills development.

McMaster University president Peter George liked the extra funding for research granting councils.

"This is clearly a restraint budget but there is some money here to reinforce universities and the important work we do" he said. "On balance, given the atmosphere of restraint, the fact the government took pains to direct money to new research is important."

Ty Shattuck, co-founder and vice-president of Trivaris, a main tenant of the McMaster Innovation Park, liked the commercialization money but said more is needed.

"We need a shift from core research to applied research because all of the research in the world is for naught if we can't get it into the economy," he said. "Research is more than just startups. It's also about using new ideas to become more efficient and competitive."

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger saw the document as "a stay-the-course budget" that at least continued badly needed infrastructure support for a second year.

"I'm a bit concerned about the end of infrastructure support, we need a longer-term program," he said. "Those programs put people back to work and generate revenue, any economist will tell you that."

Hamilton Chamber of Commerce chairman Richard Koroscil found the budget "responsible" for the economic environment and especially liked funding for green energy initiatives, continuation of the stimulus spending, research support, income tax cuts at the lower end of the wage scale and the idea of free-trade zones.

"Setting up free-trade zones could be a real benefit for us as a community," he said. "They would allow us to attract all sorts of things that would be good for the community."

[thistleclub]

Globe & Mail: Budget ignored cities, Toronto mayor says

Kelly Grant and Aanna Mehler Paperny
Globe and Mail
Published on Thursday, Mar. 04, 2010 10:07PM EST
Last updated on Friday, Mar. 05, 2010 3:16AM EST

Beset by its own financial troubles, the City of Toronto found no relief in the federal government's austere new budget.

Toronto Mayor David Miller called the Conservatives' latest fiscal blueprint a missed opportunity to invest in the national transit, child-care and social housing strategies he and other big-city leaders have been demanding for years.

“This budget doesn't show a vision of this country and how it's going to ensure that Canada succeeds, particularly in its great cities,” Mr. Miller said.

....

Ryerson University professor Myer Siemiatycki said a federal government looking to jump-start the national post-recession economy neglects urban investment at its peril.

“The economic competitiveness of Canada hinges increasingly on the viability of its cities,” he said, adding the budget is more evidence of the disconnect between the federal Conservative and urban voters.

[realcity]

Cry Toronto. For the first time in history a federal government is financing a SUBWAY. and Toronto cries the blues.

"not investing in child care" ie. Not paying for it. It's not fair for the parents who choose to stay home and raise their children until grade 1, on one income have to subsidize the two working parents by paying for their grubby childrens' grubby daycare.