Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Economic Growth Strategy and Distributement
The Liberal government earmarked $800 million in last year's budget in order to foster innovation and growth within Canada, specifically focusing on incubators and startup hubs like Communitech. The money will distributed to companies in hopes that they will scale up quickly and effectively. Unfortunately there are some within the Liberal government that believe that areas like the KW region do not need money from them due to their connections to Universities. This is because Universities like Waterloo and Laurier foster growth globally and locally through networks and other connections within the industry. Also, it is argued that the startups that areas like KW foster are not what the government is looking for. Some Liberals argue that money from the investment should be used to support tech-clusters around high growth Canadian companies.
Unfortunately, the article does have a very capitalist undertone that centers on how to turn the already large investment into a sum 10 time its original amount. Due to it being a government related investment the end goal will always be profit. In my mind this capitalist goal may impede the companies that deserve the investment. If a company is unable to turn a profit then their product, service or company may not receive investment from the government no matter how innovative or essential it is.
http://www.therecord.com/news-story/7188164-liberals-nearing-decision-on-how-to-spend-800m-earmarked-for-innovation/
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I agree with you Stuart, I think the government would most likely choose the safest companies to invest in, but as a result not necessarily the most innovative. If that is the case, maybe it also speaks to why they have chosen to not invest in the KW region. In the article, he says "the institution-centred approach has not produced the outcomes governments have been looking for" in reference to accelerators and incubators tied to universities. I'm assuming the outcomes they are looking for are purely concerned with the generating of wealth from the firms themselves and not through already existing networks where money could be dispersed.
ReplyDeleteI believe that areas like KW do require further investment in order to develop to the next level as a tech/business hub. Having the universities close by is a huge advantage, however it is not their sole priority to turn KW into a booming business. A good comparison can be seen when looking at places like Silicon Valley, which have significantly more investment through major companies like Google. This evidence is enough to tell me that two universities are not enough to take KW to the level it has the potential to reach.
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