Despite considerable federal government spending on private sector research and development - $5 billion in fiscal 2010-2011 - Canada is losing the global innovation sweepstakes. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), our R&D spending is middle of the pack and trending downward. After adjusting for inflation, Canadian businesses spent less on R&D in 2010 than they did in 2001.
This matters because our lack of innovation is having an impact on our ability to compete. With the Canadian dollar at parity with the U.S. greenback, our cost advantage has largely evaporated and, if we're no longer cheaper, we better become something else. The usual suspects are being more productive or having products and services others do not, both of which are pretty deeply rooted in innovation.
To read the full, original article click on this link: nbbusinessjournal.com - Tech report relevant to us here | Larry Sampson - Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada
