Elusive speech offers intriguing insightsinto Industry minister’s strategic priorities

Emerson speaks out

Industry minister Dr David Emerson has delivered what may be the most candid and hard-hitting speech of his fledgling political career but you won’t find it on his department’s web site. In an address notable for its grasp of key economic, innovation and technology issues, Emerson pointed to keeping open the post 9/11 border with the US, encouraging innovation throughout the supply chain and commercialization as among his top priorities in the near term.

The speech was delivered November 8 at a forum presented by the Vancouver International Airport Authority, of which he was its inaugural CEO. It has quickly gained considerable notoriety for the fact that it was written by the minister himself and was not vetted by departmental bureaucrats or communications experts. The result is an unvarnished – even salty – airing of the challenges Emerson faces in the coming years and his thinking for overcoming them. An edited transcript of the speech was published in two parts late last year by The Vancouver Sun.

(RE$EARCH MONEY has posted a copy of the speech.on its web site at www.researchmoneyinc.com.)

DEFENDS PUBLIC ROLE

Emerson says that for Canada to remain competitive, it’s essential that the federal government play a strategic role as a critical intervenor in niche sectors — a role made all the more urgent by the aggressive actions of other governments.

“We’re looking at the critical interventions that have to be made strategically in order to ensure that those clusters continue to thrive and grow and become more and more efficient,” he stated. “You’ve got governments out there that are predatory … If you cut taxes across the board and let the market take care of it all, you’d lose the sector because somebody would come in from Texas or Arkansas or Tennessee or Ireland or England or Brazil and they’d offer them a great big industrial bribe, testing the limits of the WTO. But they can do it, and the industry would be gone.”

Emerson acknowledges that government intervention has its detractors, particularly from those on the right. But he asserts that support for critical industries such as aerospace, automotive and biotechnology are essential, even if it means assisting large corporations like Bombardier.

“We’re having to step up to things that yours truly is probably going to get in a lot of political hot water over,” he stated. “I believe that we do have to have some sector strategies in Canada that will identify a cluster and understand what makes it hang together, and start to look at where only a public sector intervention is going to have the desired effect in terms of keeping it around.”

Drawing on his experience as president and CEO of Canfor Corp, Emerson is adamant that future competitiveness and productivity depend on technology being adopted all along the supply chain, from the lab bench through to manufacturing, distribution and the marketplace

“You have to start to build integrated partnerships where people are planning their technology together, where they’re creating wealth and where you’re sharing wealth with your partners,” he stated. “The big gains in competitiveness are from working through the entire cluster, the entire supply chain. If you don’t do that, anything else you do is going to be almost inconsequential.:

Emerson’s speech also focused on Canada’s status as a trading nation and the current state of border access to US markets. He says that the importance of agreements such as NAFTA and the WTO — which resulted in unprecedented growth and wealth creation — are being superceded by the imperative of becoming more competitive.

The border is back with a vengeance ... It’s become a fundamental source of risk,” he stated. “How can we take our competitiveness to another level such that we can withstand border risk, or we can withstand perennial trade action, or a dollar that has been escalating at a tremendous rate?”

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