Projects 2006/2007
Capitalizing on Green: Fostering Canada’s Cleantech Entrepreneurs
Jane Ambachtsheer, Caroline Charest, Bart Kasowski, Jason Mitschele, Rick Nielsen
Advisor: Bob Foulkes
Canada offers fertile ground for a thriving industry based on clean, or green, technologies that use natural resources more efficiently for superior performance at lower cost. These technologies can be applied to many sectors, including water purification, agriculture, energy generation and manufacturing.
Yet Canadian governments at all levels are not stimulating growth in this area.
The Capitalizing on Green taskforce sought to address this issue by interviewing ‘cleantech’ entrepreneurs across the country for their views on policies that could stimulate growth.
The Task Force then established five recommendations to help all levels of Canadian government to better promote Canadian cleantech entrepreneurship. The recommendations included the development of a vision for cleantech in Canada, removal of barriers to foreign venture capital investment, more procurement of green products at the governmental level, streamlining consumer incentives for consumers and corporations and allowing customers to be credited for electricity they supply to the grid.
This group had had three op-eds published: 30 July 2007 in The Globe and Mail, “We’re wasting our chance to be green leaders,” 28 June 2007 in The Calgary Herald, “There’s lots of gold in being green,” and 22 May 2007 in The Toronto Star, “Getting hip to bullfrog power.”
Getting the Deal Done: Unlocking Innovation from Canada’s Universities
Darren Fung, Sana Halwani, David Kelton, Jake McEwan, Emmanuelle Richez
Advisor: Malcolm Rowe
If Canada is to develop a knowledge economy, Canadian researchers and entrepreneurs need to find quicker and more effective ways to transfer technology developed at Canadian universities.
This Task Force spent 10 months interviewing leading Canadian technology transfer managers as well as partners in venture capital firms. They conducted an extensive literature review and examined domestic and international case studies. The result is a comprehensive set of recommendations for how government and academic institutions can make technology transfer a priority. The taskforce identified ways in which academic institutions and their stakeholders can speed up their time-to-market and they also suggested initiatives to ensure both current and new investment is more effective in commercializing technology.
Moving in the Right Direction? Labour Mobility, Labour Shortage and Canada’s Human Potential
Aaron Pereira, Benjamin Shinewald, Alexis Wise, Stephanie Yates, Rebekah Young
Advisor: Judith Marcuse
Canada is entering an era of tightening labour markets which may prevent the country’s national prosperity from reaching its full potential. This task force’s research focused on key labour issues facing the Canadian economy: inter-provincial labour mobility and the current policies which govern it, as well as widespread concern about looming and severe labour shortages.
The task force recommended a bold call to action: a national dialogue, including a First Ministers’ Conference and a Royal Commission, to create a coordinated and effective response to the challenges of Canada’s rapidly shrinking labour market.
This group had an op-ed published 16 July 2007 in The Globe and Mail, “A hollowed out country in more ways than one.”
