Flaherty budget to finally put business innovation at top of agenda ...

By Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA ? Policy-makers have talked about business innovation endlessly ? now the Harper government says it is determined to do something about it.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper?s pledge last week to make innovation a key element of the upcoming budget opens the window to the first comprehensive rethink in many years on the way Ottawa doles out more than $6 billion to stimulate research and development, say experts.

And depending on how seriously Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty take to the task, they add, the project has the potential to achieve the lofty goal the prime minister is assigning it: sustaining the economy as the workforce ages and shrinks.

?Canada?s choice will be, with clarity and urgency, to seize and to master our future, to be a model of confidence, growth and prosperity in the 21st century,? Harper told the attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

Improving innovation and competitiveness, however, has been the goal of governments long before Harper came to office, and according to a 2010 measure, Canada still ranks 14 of 17 peer countries.

This despite Canadian governments having been among the most generous in funding for research and development.

?It?s easier to talk about the problem than do something. I don?t think a single budget is going to solve the problem, this is a long-term project,? said Jack Mintz of the University of Calgary?s School of Public Policy, one of Canada?s most influential economists.

The government-commissioned Tom Jenkins report released in the fall will guide some of the coming changes, but not all.

Mintz said he believes Ottawa is giving close consideration to a recommendation made in the report known as ?smart procurement,? which would call on companies

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