The innovation agenda marks another incremental turn away from “framework” economic development policies. But the shift is unlikely to be transformational unless it is scaled up and accompanied by a greater role for long-term public investment.
While the resource economy and traditional manufacturing struggle, we have largely failed to build new sources of wealth in knowledge intensive goods and services.
It is, to say the least, rare for a business-dominated advisory panel to the Harper government to suggest that targeted spending programs are more efficient than tax cuts.
In Canada’s particular context, left economic thinkers surmised that the role of the state is not only to foster equality, but to also help set the direction of the economy since domestic entrepreneurs were proving inadequate to the task.
