Over the past few days, Industry Minister Christian Paradis has delivered two addresses that touch on the national digital strategy. Interestingly, I found that more was said in his remarks to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting last Sunday in St. John’s than in his comments yesterday at the CWTA’s Wireless Canada Technology Showcase in Ottawa. [Note: the Minister’s Wireless Showcase speech was delivered with substantial ad libs and rearranging of the order of the prepared remarks. You can watch the speech beginning at the 8min mark of the Welcoming Remarks video here.]
In Newfoundland, following a discussion of increasing R&D investment by the private sector, Minister Paradis continued with a number of points focused on the Digital Economy:
The digital economy includes everything we can or would like to do online. It includes the creation, supply and use of digital content and technologies that enable everyday life and innovation.
At the heart of the digital economy are information and communications technologies (ICTs)—everything from the personal computer in your home to the multi-purpose mobile devices that many of us can’t seem to live without. Those in the room with teenagers at home already know all too well about that.
When individuals, companies and entire economies adopt these technologies, a number of important things happen. Adoption boosts productivity, accelerates innovation and generates new products, processes and business models.
The value of these technologies is self-evident. And the federal government will do its share to promote adoption of these technologies. We will be launching a new program, announced in the last budget, to promote adoption by small businesses using community colleges as partners.
We will be tabling new legislation on copyright and privacy to ensure that Canadian businesses and individuals have the legal protections to confidently and fully engage in the digital economy. We are boosting our support to increase university capacity in key digital skills disciplines. And this fall, we will be announcing the actions we will take to release more mobile broadband spectrum, thereby ensuring a world-class communications infrastructure in Canada.
But Canada will succeed as a world-leading digital economy only if government and the private sector work together. We look to the support of Chambers of Commerce like yours to ensure that Canada has a world-class digitally skilled workforce and that businesses in all sectors of the economy make smart investments in digital technologies to improve innovation and productivity.
We need to take concrete actions now to lay the foundation for Canada to regain leadership as a digital economy.
In his Ottawa address yesterday, the digital economy was addressed through references to infrastructure and legislation to encourage innovation and adoption of information and communications technologies.
we will be moving our agenda forward this fall in Parliament with the reintroduction of legislation on copyright modernization and privacy amendments. Our legislation will give Canadians the confidence and the full protection of the law that they need to fully engage and participate in this transformative new economy.
It was in the middle of the Wireless speech that we saw more than implementation details – the vision statement:
We envision a Canada where our digital infrastructure is on the leading edge and our businesses and consumers are early adopters. Where our workers have the skills to thrive in this digital economy, and our companies are the technology manufacturers and suppliers to the world.
How do we get there? How will government leadership influence the velocity of digital literacy and adoption?