Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I. and New Brunswick earn "D-"s on Conference Board Innovation Report Card.
OTTAWA, May 14, 2018 /CNW/ - Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick find themselves at the back of the class on The Conference Board of Canada's How Canada Performs: Innovation report card. The Atlantic provinces earn "D-" grades on the second innovation report card to compare Canada, the 10 provinces and 15 peer countries.
"Innovation is important to improving productivity, economic growth, and job creation, as well as to sustaining the high quality of life that Canadians have come to expect," said Paul Preston, Director, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, The Conference Board of Canada. "The innovation challenge for the provinces is very real. Our report card shows that the Atlantic provinces are weak across indicators of innovation capacity, activity and results."
HIGHLIGHTS
- Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador earn "D-" grades overall on innovation and rank 21st and 22nd, respectively, among 26 jurisdictions.
- P.E.I. and New Brunswick also score "D-" grades and rank second-last and last, respectively, among all comparator jurisdictions.
- All four provinces perform poorly on business enterprise R&D, researchers engaged in R&D (including researchers employed in business, higher education and government), and patents.
Ten indicators were used to measure the provinces' innovation performance. This includes indicators in three categories:
- innovation capacity—i.e., investments and resources that provide a foundation for research, idea-generation, and insight-sharing (including public R&D, researchers engaged in R&D, and scientific articles);
- innovation activity—i.e., entrepreneurial ambition, investments in ICT and venture capital, and business R&D activity that help to transform ideas into commercialized products, services and processes; and
- innovation results—i.e., evidence of the impact of research, innovation and commercialization as captured in patents, new ventures, and overall labour productivity.
Although its overall score is a "D-", Nova Scotia ranks ahead of all Atlantic provinces in 21st place among 26 jurisdictions. The province receives a "D" on information and communications technology (ICT) investment and four "D-"s for researchers engaged in R&D (including researchers employed in business, higher education and government), patents, and labour productivity. Nova Scotia also earns a "D-" on business enterprise R&D (BERD), ranking 23rd of 26 jurisdictions on this key indicator of innovation activity.
Nova Scotia does very well on public R&D. With public R&D of 1.2 per cent of GDP, Nova Scotia earns an "A+" and ranks first among all comparator jurisdictions. The province earns a "B" and places third on scientific articles, measured as the number of peer-reviewed scientific articles per million population. The province's higher-education sector continues to provide a good foundation for science and innovation potential.
Newfoundland and Labrador earns a "D-" grade and ranks 22nd overall. Like Nova Scotia, the province earns "D-" grades on researchers engaged in R&D, BERD, and patents. It receives "D"s on ICT investment and venture capital, and "C"s on scientific articles and labour productivity. Newfoundland and Labrador's best grade is an "A", which it earns for its enterprise entry rate of 15 per cent—the second-highest rate among the provinces.
Newfoundland and Labrador fares reasonably well on two other indicators, earning "B"s on entrepreneurial ambition (a measure of the share of the working-age population reporting early-stage entrepreneurial activity, such as attempts to establish or own a new business), and public R&D—an improvement over its "C" grade on the previous report card.
Although Prince Edward Island earns an "A" for enterprise entries and a "B" for public R&D, it earns only "D" and "D-" grades on all other indicators, leaving it with an overall grade of "D-" and placing 25th among 26 comparator jurisdictions. The province fell from a "B" to a "D" on ICT investment, and from a "C" to a "D" on scientific articles. While P.E.I.'s "B" on public R&D is a highlight in the current report card, it marks a fall from an "A" on the previous report card.
P.E.I.'s weakness across the range of indicators, including labour productivity, suggests that it has a long road ahead to improve its innovation performance. The challenge for the province will be to identify and focus on its niche strengths and build an innovation ecosystem around those.
New Brunswick receives a "D-" grade overall and ranks last among all provinces and international peers. The province also has the unfortunate distinction of being the only jurisdiction that fails to earn "A" or "B" grades on any of the indicators used to assess innovation performance. The province earns three "C"s, three "D"s and three "D-" grades, revealing weaknesses in all aspects of innovation performance.
New Brunswick has weak public R&D as a share of GDP and relatively low investment in ICT—earning "C"s on both indicators. The province attracts little venture capital (earning a "D") and produces few scientific articles per million population (earning a "D"). Although the province has seen a small uptick in business R&D since the last report card (from 0.22 to 0.31 per cent as a share of GDP), it remains second-last among all comparator jurisdictions on BERD, and receives a "D-". The province also earns a "C" on enterprise entry, a "D" on labour productivity, and a "D-" on patents.
How Canada Performs is an ongoing research program at The Conference Board of Canada to help leaders identify relative strengths and weaknesses in Canada's socio-economic performance. Six performance domains are assessed: Economy, Education and Skills, Innovation, Environment, Health, and Society.
This is the second time that provincial rankings have been included in the innovation report card. Further details, including information on data sources and the methodology behind the rankings, can be found on the How Canada Performs website.
Paul Preston will present the findings from the How Canada Performs Report Card on Innovation in a live webinar on June 26.
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SOURCE Conference Board of Canada
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Yvonne Squires, Media Relations, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: 613- 526-3090 ext. 221, E-mail: [email protected]; Juline Ranger, Director of Communications, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: 613- 526-3090 ext. 431, E-mail: [email protected]
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