Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ministry of Innovation, Science Economic Development

innovation clusters: Last week budget continued the emphasis on innovation, promising $150M in 2017-2018 for an innovation agenda, according to Toronto Star. The full details have yet to be revealed, but the budget also added tax reforms to create investment incentives , support for innovation clusters and increased dollars for scientific research. Gone was Industry Canada, replaced by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, with Navdeep Bains, a close confidant of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, installed as the responsible minister. The government says its goal is to make Canada a centre of global innovation, a significant challenge given that studies persistently point to Canada innovation gap. The STIC data shows that Canadian businesses lag behind their global counterparts in investing in research and development, and do a poor job of integrating advanced research talent into the workplace. Last year, the Science, Technology and Innovation Council , a government-backed group, concluded that Canada was not globally competitive and that it is falling further behind global competitors and facing a widening gap with the world top five performing countries. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.