Why Choose Industry Canada

Work that Matters

We're proud of our work. It's about advancing the marketplace, supporting business, and fostering Canada's knowledge-based economy. Our work stimulates professional growth and still offers balance for personal and professional pursuits. The result is a talented and collegial workforce that brings its best to bear on improving the economic prosperity and well-being of Canadians.

Here are some examples of the important work we do:

Managing Spectrum and Telecommunications

Industry Canada manages the spectrum on behalf of Canadians. The electromagnetic spectrum is a limited public resource of incalculable value to society and the economy. From radio waves at the low end of the spectrum to extremely high frequency microwaves, spectrum is used to provide wireless communications for everything from public safety to personal cell phones, to garage door openers. Last year, a group of our technical, economic and policy analysts formed a Spectrum Auction Team to create auction rules and spectrum-use policies to ensure that the 2008 Advanced Wireless Services (spectrum) auction process, which raised over $4.25 billion, addressed public policy objectives and functioned efficiently and securely. Their work is serving to promote competition and innovation in wireless telecommunications that will benefit consumers and businesses alike.

Mapping Future Technologies

Technology Roadmaps are the result of a strategic planning process that helps Canadian companies to identify, select and develop technology alternatives that will satisfy future product, service or operational needs. With needs identified, technology road mapping defines the critical requirements and performance targets that must be met within set timeframes for a company or industrial sector to successfully meet future market demands. Our economists, commerce officers and policy analysts work directly with representatives in industrial sectors to learn first-hand about their priorities and needs for the future. Applying their road mapping expertise, they are helping Canadian industry to develop and acquire the necessary technologies and skills to strengthen their competitiveness.

Supporting Canada's economic competitiveness

Economists, competition policy specialists and legal experts were members of an Industry Canada team that recently carried out a sweeping review of Canada's key competition and investment policies. The result was Compete to Win, the 2008 report of the Competition Policy Review Panel. Compete to Win puts forward a series of policy recommendations aimed at making Canada a more attractive destination for talent, investment and innovation. It also outlines a sweeping national Competitiveness Agenda, based on the premise that Canada's standard of living and economic performance will be raised through more competition within Canada and from abroad.

Fostering innovation in Aerospace and Defence

Industry Canada's Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI) is of key importance to innovation, and is helping to build the knowledge economy that is so important to our future prosperity. Our engineers, scientists, policy analysts and business development experts are helping Canada's aerospace and defence (A&D) industries to thrive. Canada's A&D industries are major contributors to the national economy. A&D industries are knowledge-intensive, making technological breakthroughs in fields such as robotics and new lightweight materials, and they remain important first users of enabling new technologies like nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing.

Contributing to international security and prosperity

Launched in March 2005, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) provides a flexible means for dialogue, priority-setting, collaboration, and action on issues affecting the security, prosperity, and quality of life of North Americans. Industry Canada has significant responsibilities under the SPP. Our economists, business experts, and policy analysts are carrying out on-going essential work through international working groups in areas such as competitiveness, border-related issues, E-commerce and information and communications technologies, and intellectual property.

Streamlining Business to Government interaction

The Paper Burden Reduction Initiative is a public and private sector partnership aimed at exploring ways to measure and minimize the costs and impact of regulatory compliance on small business. Members of an Industry Canada team are part of a multi-sector task force that is actively pursuing opportunities to reduce, rationalize and simplify regulatory requirements across federal departments and agencies. They bring their expertise to bear in areas such as small business development and related services, regulation, business policy, financial and management accounting, corporate governance and public sector management. They work cooperatively with both the public and private sectors, including small business owners, business associations, and government departments and agencies.