Discover the Innovative Spirit of Canada

It’s a real pleasure to be in Singapore today.  Je suis très heureux d’être parmi vous aujourd’hui à Singapoure, une ville fascinante et magnifique – where everything vibrates - stimulating curiosity, interest, and innovation.  Thank you for this opportunity to speak about Canada and our 21^st century global economy. My colleague, Member of Parliament Gremont Grewal, and I are proud to be part of the Canadian mission to CommunicAsia.  Our delegation is 24 strong: these IT and venture capital firms have truly groundbreaking technologies, which I’ll talk a little about later on.

To start though, let’s talk a little about Canada.

Yes, we know how others see us. They think of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, snow-capped mountains and winter. A big, peaceful country with friendly people and an abundance of natural resources.  This is but one facet of the Canadian reality.  There is so much more to the Canadian people and our economy.

A look back at the history books shows a long history of Canadian technological advances:

·                       In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell successfully made the first telephone call from his Ontario lab.

·                       In 1901, Marconi received the first wireless message.

·                       In 1906, Fessenden made the first radio broadcast in the world.

·                       Fast forward a few decades to 1972, when Canadian scientists launched the first telecommunication satellite into orbit: the famous Anik A. We were there even before the U.S.!

If we jump to the present, it becomes apparent that Canadian innovators are not content to sit on their laurels. 

You are all technical experts in this room, so let me ask you a question:  just how fast is “high-speed”?  I am told that with a bandwidth greater than any commercial Internet link, Canada’s all-optical CA*net 3 can download the entire two-and-a-half-hour movie Titanic in one-fifth of a second.

The world, as we all know, ladies and gentlemen, is changing.  We are all in the midst of a massive shift in the way we communicate with one another.

·                       ICTs and other new, emerging technologies are reshaping our political and economic reality - and changing the way we do business.  Technologies converge and new markets emerge.

·                       The world over, old monopolies and state-owned enterprises are giving way to competition and new efficiencies.

·                       Trade barriers are being systematically eliminated and global trade integration is a reality.

·                       Industry is rapidly re-structuring and consolidating in many key areas.  Mergers and acquisitions occur in all business sectors.

·                       Wireless communications are changing lives around the world, not to mention business.  In some countries, penetration of wireless telephones and devices has risen above 90% of the total population.

·                       Finally, in less than a decade, the Internet has created, seemingly from nothing, a new digital global village.  In the coming years, wireless Internet promises yet another dramatic leap forward.

ICT is the force behind a tidal wave of growth, change and economic potential that is unmatched in history.  And where does Canada fit in?  The answer is simply everywhere. 

Today, the Canadian ICT industry has attracted the attention of investors all over the world. Canadian telecommunications companies regularly form strategic alliances with international firms to increase distribution and foster new product development.  Our regulatory environment makes it easy for Canadian businesses and their international partners to move innovative new products and services into the global marketplace.  Our e-commerce and cybersecurity laws encourage companies to take advantage of the opportunities presented by e-commerce, while protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and security of data and computer networks.  Canadian companies already benefit from one of the world’s best communications infrastructure.  But investment in Canada offers even more:  access to the most advanced development networks anywhere.  From Canada’s National Test Network (at 6000 kilometres, the world’s longest fibre optic network) to our all-optical CA*net 3, Canada’s high-speed networks open up whole new worlds of possibility:  E-com, multimedia, distance learning, telemedicine, virtual reality, real-time audio and video, just to name a few.

Our government is actively trying to ensure our high technology industry will take advantage of these new realities. 

We are:

·                      ensuring competition in all markets;

·                      continuing projects of deregulation; and

·                      investing in the research capacity of Canadian universities and government laboratories and institutions.

For example:

·                      The Canadian Foundation for Innovation will distribute C$5.5 billion by the end of this decade to fund innovative research in institutions across the country;

·                      2,000 Canada Research Chairs have been created over five years, and are part of an overall ($900 million) investment by the Government of Canada to promote leading-edge research and innovation in universities, research hospitals and the private sector.

This is all in addition to ongoing support for information technology in critical non-corporate settings.  The “Connectedness” initiative has connected every Canadian school, library, and government office to the Internet.  Looking to the future, by 2004 all Canadians will be connected with help from this initiative.

This continuing commitment to innovation has lead to great successes.

·                      75% of North America’s internet traffic is carried on Canadian products;

·                      Canada’s many firms in the optical sector comprise the largest such industry in the world;

·                      RIM’s remarkable BLACKBERRY- an invention that enables almost constant Internet access, is proudly a Canadian product.  It’s so popular in Canada that it’s not uncommon for me to my colleagues sending and receiving messages even while working in Parliament!