The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
OTTAWA – Canada has an innovation problem, but it can’t be pinned on the performance of the booming oil sands and mining industries.
The resource sector scores higher than most other Canadian industries when it comes to innovation, concludes a report released Friday by the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
“It’s not inconsistent to have an innovation problem and also have sectors that do well,” said Andrew Sharpe, the centre’s director. “And that’s the case in Canada.” While the resource sector is vital to the Canadian economy, it generates a relatively modest share of the country’s employment and economic output.
So the innovation problem lies elsewhere, most likely in the large service industry, which dominates the Canadian economy and generally suffers from weak productivity, Mr. Sharpe suggested.