Statistics Canada cuts could leave policymakers ‘flying blind’

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Canada's woeful innovation record was highlighted once again this week with the release of the latest annual Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum. A subpar performance on most of the key indicators of innovation was a leading factor behind this country's overall 14th place ranking.

Addressing the weaknesses in Canada's innovation policy is more critical than ever. Yet, doing so is about to become harder with the cancellation by Statistics Canada of surveys that measure the commercialization of university research and the management of intellectual property by federal departments. Their demise could, according to one expert, leave policymakers "flying blind."

Statscan's survey of Intellectual Property Commercialization in the Higher Education Sector had tracked such things as the patents issued to Canadian universities and the income they generate from the intellectual property yielded by their research activities. Commercialization of university research is a key aim of Ottawa's innovation policy as it attempts to move more discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. The Statscan data provided policymakers with one way to track progress in this area.

But Statscan issued the last such survey earlier this year – providing data for 2009 – as the agency moved to cut $33.9-million from its $454-million annual budget. The cuts were ordered by federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in his 2012 budget. He gave Statscan until 2014 to implement them.

"Those were among the surveys we cancelled coming out of budget 2012," explained Greg Peterson, director of StatsCan's Investment, Science and Technology Division. "While important to some users, [the surveys] were of a lower priority in the grand scheme of things."

The disappearance of the surveys will make it harder to measure Canada's innovation performance and adjust policy accordingly, warns Ron Freedman, the chief executive officer of Toronto-based Research Infosource, which publishes a newsletter on R&D activity in Canada. He noted that while the U.S.-based Association of University Technology Managers collects data on the commercialization activities of some Canadian universities, unlike Statscan's, it is neither extensive nor freely available to the public.

"So, henceforth, we'll pretty much be flying blind on the higher education commercialization front," Mr. Freedman wrote in a recent newsletter to clients. "A large part of the value of data such as these is that, over time, they provide a moving picture of how the innovation system is performing, not merely an occasional snapshot."

The absence of any uproar over the disappearance of the Statscan surveys, Mr. Freedman added, is indicative of how "few people in the policy community in government or universities are interested in innovation data…Even university executives seem not to care what is happening in their backyards."

To be clear, the fault lies not with Statscan. It has to choose how to deploy its limited resources in the most effective way possible to meet its overall mandate. But unless an alternative is found – Mr. Freedman suggested federal-provincial discussions are underway – policymakers will lack an important piece of the puzzle in the evaluating the return on federal funding for university research.

"If there was someone truly interested in the data and there was a funding partnership in place whereby we could continue to collect this data, we would be happy to do so," Statscan's Mr. Peterson said.

Will anyone step up to the plate? Or will policymakers tacitly consent to flying blind?

Konrad Yakabuski writes about public policy for The Globe and Mail.