Taking your innovation to market

Here are a few organizations that are helping commercialize innovation, driving economic prosperity and growth in Ontario:

Q In 2003 you gave a speech at the opening of MaRS where you pointed out how disappointing Canada's spending on R&D was and how we had to end the old pattern of "invent in Canada and produce elsewhere." Five years later how are we doing?
A I think there's been an acceptance of the importance of these issues by everyone - government, academia and the business community. And this has made things better. For example, MaRS has turned into a wonderful strategic initiative for bringing people and ideas together. And we're making progress also in the venture capital area with new pockets of dollars like the Ontario Venture Capital Fund in which RBC is a partner. But I guess everything has to have a "but". There clearly is more work to be done.
Read full Q A session
The Government of Ontario has invested more than $3.2 billion in research over the past 10 years (1997-2007).
View chart (PDF)