OTTAWA — Canada has the right talent for using knowledge and technology to advance the country's economy in the years ahead, but using those people properly remains a challenge, according to a report released Tuesday.
The Science, Technology and Innovation Council, an advisory body to the federal government, released a report showing that, in recent years, Canada has seen growth in science and engineering students graduating with master's and doctoral degrees that "substantially" outpaces other developed countries.
It also said Canada has the highest proportion of citizens with post-secondary education among G7 countries, and the country's 15-year-olds perform better in math, science and reading than those in most other countries.
A key weakness, the report pointed out, is in private-sector research and development. This leads to difficulties in transferring the knowledge among citizens into commercialized products or services that can grow the economy enough to support a population that is facing massive retirements in the coming years as the baby boom generation enters its senior years.
"Productivity growth is essential for an aging and smaller workforce," said Guy Rouleau, a professor at the University of Montreal's department of medicine and member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council.
Another council member, McGill University vice-chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum, said businesses need to collaborate more with universities to develop products and services.
"Private-sector-financed research in universities is increasing, but levels remain low," she said.
The report showed overall R&D as a percentage of the overall economy fell to 1.84 per cent in 2008 from 1.97 per cent in 2006. In overall terms, it said R&D spending increased between 2006 and 2009 from government, educational institutions and private non-profit groups, but was down for Canadian businesses when adjusted for inflation.
Countries such as Sweden and Finland were seeing R&D spending equal to about four per cent of their economies in 2008, Japan was just less than 3.5 per cent and the United States was at around 2.75 per cent, the report showed.
Munroe-Blum noted that small- and medium-sized firms dominate Canada's economy. These companies, she added, are lagging in terms of R&D, adoption of new communications technology, use of Internet commerce and proper deployment of the talent that is available.
Council chairman Howard Alper noted how in many countries, governments will pay the salaries of master's and PhD graduates to work at smaller companies for two or three years, helping those companies become leaders in their sectors.
"That deploys the talent exceptionally well, and these people, to a significant degree . . . remain with the company following these periods of time," he said.
dabma@postmedia.com
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