Ontario innovation strategy in limbo while government decides on new leader

Program decisions delayed

The leadership campaign for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party is taking its toll on the province’s key instruments to stimulate innovation, stalling announcements of newly funded projects and prompting long delays in program renewal decisions. In recent months, there’s been barely a whisper from the flagship Ontario R&D Challenge Fund (CF) program, although funding decisions continue to be made. And renewal of the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) program is still pending, even though the current contracts are due to expire at the end of the year (see article below).

Adding to the confusion is a large turnover of key staff at the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology (MEST), compounded by minister Jim Wilson’s not-so-secret desire to be moved to another portfolio. It all adds up to a critical interruption in the momentum that was building for innovation in Ontario. That pause could be damaging as other jurisdictions — notably the federal government — continue to move ahead.

Part of the problem behind Ontario’s apparent lack of progress in creating an effective innovation strategy and programs is the highly centralized nature of decision making. CF approvals require the sign-off of five ministers and the Premier’s office maintains a firm grasp on approvals and announcements of new initiatives. That said, government officials remain optimistic that, once the leadership issue is resolved and the new premier is brought up to speed on the innovation portfolio, the machinery of decision making will lurch back into action.

“The time is right to starting planning for the next generation (of science and technology programs),” says Tony Vandervoet, a veteran S&T bureaucrat and acting director of MEST’s research, technology and innovation branch. “What’s after the Challenge Fund and the Ontario Innovation Trust? We’ll be dusting off ideas on the shelf and determining what the next phase of support will be.”

Vandervoet points to the ground-up approach to the government’s S&T strategic framework (promoted in a supplement to the Globe and Mail last October), with the development of an innovation culture at the base, followed by investment in people and infrastructure and finally the development of incentives for commercialization. Ontario continues to work on the first two levels, and it will be up to the government when the final phase should be implemented.

At the CF, the board of directors has introduced a new funding ratio, lowering its input from 33% to 22%, thereby raising the contributions from institutions to 44% (industry’s contribution remains unchanged at 33%).Those ratios apply to successful projects included in 10th and 11th round of competitions. Although those rounds have now been completed, no announcements have been made.

To date, $374 million for 77 major projects has been publicly announced by the $500-million, 10-year Fund, but those figures don’t include the last two competitions.

“I can’t say when the projects will be announced. Five ministers have to sign off and coordination of the releases has to be done through MEST. It may be a few weeks yet,” says Kenneth Knox, president of the Innovation Institute of Ontario (IIO), a private, non-profit organization contracted to administer both the CF and OIT. “The CF is intended to change the culture of the business and university sectors and it was expected the reliance of universities on the private sector and government would change over the duration of the program. The CF contribution changed from 33% to 22% for round number ten and there was a decision to review it further after the September 11 slam dunk. ”

Although the contribution ratio changes were never officially announced, the CF was originally conceived with three levels of government support, with the final level of 17.5% kicking in for the last few years of its 10-year lifespan.

In the meantime, the IIO is seeking a replacement to Dr Maurice Bitran, who was seconded to the IIO from MEST to be the CF’s executive director. He left the position earlier this month to become director of the innovation and risk management branch of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

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