PAISH: Digital world won’t wait

SUE PAISH

The good news is that Canada’s global ranking on the Conference Board’s latest Innovation Report Card climbed from 13th place out of 16 peer countries in 2020 to 11th place in 2021. The bad news: our country’s ‘C’ grade is embarrassing. As a CEO accelerating Canada’s innovation ecosystem, these rankings keep me up at night. After all, as the report card points out, organizations that fail to innovate have trouble competing and growing. Countries that sputter or move too slowly miss out on opportunities to boost productivity, spur economic growth and create jobs. Canada can build a prosperous and sustainable economy but we must prioritize digital transformation and tech-enabled talent.

At the same time, the Conference Board rankings get me out of bed each morning. At the Digital Supercluster, we harness the power of cross-sector collaborative innovation and co-investment coming from industry and government. The result? A vibrant innovation ecosystem that’s delivering digital solutions to some of our most vexing challenges, and driving the success of Canadian companies — even through the pandemic.

Three years ago there was nothing like this, and now, over 1,000 Canadian organizations are working across sectors and achieving technology breakthroughs that no one organization could have achieved alone. These partners are already developing more than 400 Canadian-owned intellectual property (IP) assets, creating over 130 products and services, attracting export opportunities and forecasting more than $1.3 billion in revenue for Canadian companies — none of which existed before the supercluster model.

As well as driving economic recovery, supercluster projects are keeping Canadians healthy and protecting our environment. One example is virtual mental health services for frontline healthcare workers. Starling Minds, the University of British Columbia and Genome BC have worked together to develop digital mental health tools and programs focused on increasing the quality and accessibility of therapy for depression, anxiety, stress and burnout, while reducing the burden on the overtaxed healthcare system. The digital platform is now available to 30,000 healthcare workers across the Fraser Health Authority, and more than 200,000 educators across Canada. The collaborative innovation model is supporting pandemic heroes, fuelling the growth of a Vancouver company, adding jobs and unburdening our stretched healthcare system.

Another one of our 82 projects is capturing the opportunity to measure, monitor and protect Canada’s freshwater ecosystem, starting in the Columbia River basin. A project team comprised of Carl Data Solutions, Genome BC, Living Lakes Canada, Teck Resources, Microsoft, the University of Victoria, Kerr Wood Leidal and Semtech Corp. is building an artificial intelligence platform that will leverage digital sensors across municipalities, industrial sites and Indigenous communities to monitor and analyze water data in real time, creating the foundation for better water stewardship.

And then there’s talent — if Canada is going to prosper, we need digitally skilled workers. That’s where the Canadian Tech Talent Accelerator (CTTA) program comes in. In collaboration with NPower Canada, Blueprint, Microsoft and the Government of B.C., CTTA will deliver in-demand tech skills to 3,900 unemployed and underemployed youth from communities underrepresented in the digital economy.

Working together across sectors, industries and geographies, Canadian organizations are delivering results never seen before. Starting from zero in 2018, in just three years there is a tangible, very real and growing community developing and deploying Canadian digital solutions, driving revenue, building IP, creating jobs and building the foundation for Canada to be at the top of the Innovation Report Card. The world is digital. It will not wait. Neither will we.

Sue Paish is CEO of Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster.