Trudeau’s Resignation Opens Door for Canada to Prioritize Innovation, Productivity, and Competitiveness, Says ITIF
OTTAWA—Following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing his resignation as Liberal Party leader and prime minister, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, released the following statement from Robert D. Atkinson, president of ITIF, and Lawrence Zhang, head of policy at ITIF’s Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness:
With the upcoming Liberal Party leadership race as well as an impending federal election this year, it is essential for Canada’s policymakers to prioritize technology, innovation, and productivity.
Canada’s techno-economic position today is fundamentally different from when Justin Trudeau was elected the country's prime minister nine years ago. Canada now faces a future of becoming a stagnant, middle-income country that specializes in natural resource extraction. This fate will reduce wage growth, economic mobility, and access to high-quality jobs in advanced industries for Canadians.
Canada must chart a radically new course that recognizes its severe structural weakness in international competitiveness and productivity. While it may be late in the game, it is not too late to redirect Canada’s techno-economic performance. Bold leadership and innovative policies can make a difference.
The Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness’s recommendations for the next federal government is a key place for all parties to start:
- Establish a productivity commissioner.
- Improve tax incentives for innovation.
- Introduce a time-limited tax credit for capital investment.
- Make Canadian colleges and universities engines of R&D commercialization.
- Create three or four “Manufacturing Canada” institutes.
- Develop an innovation-friendly regulatory system.
- Pursue regulatory interoperability with Canadian trade partners.
- Set robust artificial intelligence (AI) adoption milestones for the federal government.
- Build an independent Canada Innovation Agency.
- Pilot a federal IT procurement innovation testbed.
If implemented as described in our growth agenda, these policies will help turbocharge the economy and make Canada more innovative, productive, and globally competitive for generations to come.
Contact: Sydney Mack, [email protected]
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The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute focusing on the intersection of technological innovation and public policy. Recognized by its peers in the think tank community as the global center of excellence for science and technology policy, ITIF’s mission is to formulate and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovation and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity, and progress.
