North American Competitiveness, Innovation and Clean Energy Conference

Speaking Points

The Honourable Tony Clement, PC, MP
Minister of Industry

San Diego, California
April 14, 2010

Check Against Delivery

Thank you.

And good afternoon everyone. It’s a real pleasure to be here today and to join my colleagues, Secretary Locke and Secretary Ruiz. We’ve made important progress on a number of issues, and I look forward to continuing to work with both of you in the weeks and months ahead.

Let me also add my own words of thanks to the organizers of this conference who have done such a terrific job. The agenda is comprehensive, the speakers are first rate, and the issues are timely. So congratulations to all of you.

We meet today at a historic moment and on an auspicious date. It was on April 14, 1890, that the Pan-American Union was founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington. The name would later change to the Organization of American States, but the purpose of promoting cooperation among the Americas remains. And today, across the hemisphere, we celebrate Pan American Day.

It is a time to remember our connectedness — and our collaboration.

Recently, we were reminded of the interdependence not only of the Americas, but also of the world, as a global economic crisis spread across borders, across continents, across oceans. A crisis that confirmed that in today’s integrated economy no nation, however powerful, stands alone — or can go it alone.

So it is appropriate that our focus at this conference be on strengthening the ties among our three nations. On advancing innovation. On driving competitiveness. And on ensuring a sustainable future for our children and our children’s children.

Today, I’d like to talk for just a few moments about what Canada is doing in these areas, with a particular focus on innovation, and how we might work together in the days ahead.

As a trading nation, Canada is acutely aware of the importance of innovation to our competitiveness. As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted in a report last summer, innovation will be one of the keys to accelerating economic recovery — and for those countries that get it right, an opportunity to reap benefits for decades to come.

Canada shares that view. That is why, even before the global recession, we strengthened our economy by reducing taxes, paying down debt and investing in roads, bridges, waterways and other vital infrastructure. We boosted business conditions by implementing corporate tax reductions that will make Canada a more competitive country in which to do business.

Just as successful companies must embrace innovation, they must also promote it. Three years ago, we launched a bold new Science and Technology Strategy that encourages firms to innovate, recognizes the importance of keeping Canadians at the forefront of research and discovery, and provides our people with the opportunity to acquire the skills they need to participate in an ideas-based economy.

In the wake of the global recession, our government introduced Canada’s Economic Action Plan — a comprehensive stimulus initiative to spur growth and create jobs. Now into its second and final year, our Action Plan:

• enhances access to financing by removing existing restrictions on foreign ownership of Canadian satellites and beefing up venture capital funds targeting late-stage research and commercialization;
• expands scholarship programs to connect our brightest young minds with our savviest entrepreneurs;
• creates business-led centres of excellence, which fund research in private sector innovation and promoting commercialization;
• fosters clusters, something that I know Secretary Locke has spoken about extensively; and
• reduces the cost of doing business by eliminating all remaining tariffs on manufacturing inputs and machinery and equipment and cutting red tape for businesses.

All of these efforts are grounded in the fundamental belief that innovation holds the key not only to our country’s recovery today but also to our competitiveness and progress tomorrow.

One area that holds particular promise is the digital economy. Indeed for Canada, creating a digital economy is a key component of our economic strategy moving forward, one that will underpin our competitiveness for decades to come.

Information and communications technologies — or ICTs — are as critical to success today as raw materials and transportation were to an earlier time. They are having a profound impact on businesses large and small, enabling them to better serve their customers, near and far. To capture their power and potential, we introduced a whole host of measures that encourage faster adoption, including aggressively expanding broadband to rural and remote communities.

As more and more creators and consumers join the digital economy, they have to be confident that their transactions are safe and their privacy secure. That means being free from Internet fraud and from counterfeit websites, spyware and spam. We will reintroduce our tough new anti-spam legislation aimed at protecting the privacy of Canadians and boosting confidence in the electronic marketplace.

Critical to that confidence is ensuring that copyright and intellectual property laws keep pace — and our government intends to modernize Canadian law in these areas.

Innovation and digital technologies will also play a critical role in two areas that are of particular importance to all three of our countries: manufacturing and more efficient borders.

When it comes to manufacturing, we need to aggressively adopt ICTs and embed them in every aspect of production, every aspect of our businesses, so that we can make our companies even more competitive.

A key part of making our manufacturing more competitive is ensuring the free movement of goods across our borders and developing efficient supply chains — both of which, I understand, will be addressed more fully later this afternoon.

Let me just say for the moment, however, that these issues — getting the right infrastructure in place for modern borders and effective supply chains — will be critical to ensuring our North American economy stays competitive.

Of course, nowhere is the potential for innovation — particularly ICTs — greater than in moving us toward a low carbon economy. A transition that countries like Brazil, China and India are already making. They understand that the green economy is where the jobs of tomorrow will be, where the opportunities will come from. Indeed, in a very real sense, where the future lies.

In those efforts, Canada’s position is clear: we are committed to working with our North American partners to address climate change. Given the integrated nature of our economies, that just makes sense. So we will continue to work with you to harmonize our regulatory regimes to ensure a level playing field for our industries while minimizing compliance costs for industries operating across North America.

For our part, Canada has set the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. To support innovative solutions, we are investing over $1 billion — funding that will support clean energy technologies and research, development and demonstration of the most promising of these, including large-scale carbon capture and storage projects. This will mean cleaner air for our children and greener jobs for our workers.

Canada has also set the goal of obtaining 90 percent of our electricity from clean sources by 2020. Today, over 70 percent of Canada’s electricity comes from renewable sources like hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, waste-to-energy and biofuels.

We are already the second largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world, with unique expertise in turbines, generators and transformers. And with more biomass resources per capita than any other country, Canada is fast becoming a focal point for global development of bioenergy products and services.

We also see the tremendous potential of hydrogen and fuel cell technology — technology we are already exporting to the United States, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Some of that technology was on display at the recent Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver, which, I am proud to say, were the greenest on record.

So I look forward to working with my partners in Mexico and the United States to address key challenges such as global warming and to spurring innovations that will create jobs and growth across North America.

I began by saying that we are meeting at a historic moment. A time when the global economy is still struggling to its feet. But I believe that in the midst of such uncertainty and upheaval, we have a unique opportunity to explore ways to strengthen North American competitiveness through innovation. And while it may be tempting, given the economic challenges, to retreat behind walls or put up ramparts against the future, that is precisely what we should not do.

History teaches us that protectionism is not the way forward in this hemisphere, and it is not the way forward in an interconnected world. Indeed, our experience on this continent provides compelling evidence of the benefits of free trade. Since NAFTA came into effect, merchandise trade among us has more than tripled. Every hour of every day, our countries exchange more than $100 million in goods. And since 1993, employment levels have climbed nearly 23 percent — representing a net gain of almost 40 million jobs.

So let us resolve, as North Americans, as three friends, to remain open to trade and commerce — continuing to build our common future on our common interests.

This year, Canada will welcome Mexico and the United States to the North American Leaders Summit and G20 meetings. We look forward to your coming and to the progress we can make together.

Because great as our partnership has been, I believe that our brightest days are still ahead.

Thank you.