Ontario in the Creative Age

Fortunately, my first impression of the "Ontario in the Creative Age" report was oversimplified. My second thought: bold and visionary study. Not all proposals are actionable, but it is a good starting point in goal-setting. Some comments:

Talents: While we have only 22.3% of population over 25 with university degree in general, this concentration is much higher in Greater Toronto, Ottawa, and Kitchener-Waterloo regions. We can take advantage immediately, strengthen existing clustered industries and seed new ones.

Technology: A number of patents per capita is not a reliable indicator of level of technology (though it is pity that we are behind almost all OECD countries). Japan in 50-60th mostly procured patents, however was able to build an innovative economy. It is a matter of management and culture.

Clustering: We have to take full advantage of our existing human capital and seed new industries: bioscience, alternative energy. This step will set demand on researchers and immediately: a) re-employ some professionals with university degree who are underemployed on routine-based jobs, b) increase attractiveness of creative jobs and stimulate college enrolement.

This crisis is a unique opportunity to build a new economy and prosper. But we must act and act quickly!

P.S. Fasttrack roadmap for Toronto: due to the presence of world-class research facilities (University Health Network, The Ontario Cancer Institute, etc.) Toronto can be positioned not just as a center for financial-related jobs (which can be easily outsourced), but also as a bioscience center (these jobs require significant infrastructure spending and cannot be outsourced easily.) To make it happened all we need to do is to give biomedical companies a 5-10 year tax holiday (subject to some conditions). Perhaps the budget will not receive some corporate taxes (which are anyway highly doubtful for companies with long R&D cycle) but we will have a significant increase in personal income taxes from highly paid researchers, bust in lodging, etc.