INDU Committee News Release

Ottawa, April 11, 2000 – In a major report presented today in the House of Commons, the Standing Committee on Industry proposes new industrial policies that will successfully take Canada from its industrial past to the globalized and innovative society of the future.

Committee Chair Susan Whelan, M.P. (Liberal-Essex) stated that the report entitled: Productivity and Innovation: A Competitive and Prosperous Canada, "makes recommendations that will better prepare Canadians and Canadian businesses for the opportunities and challenges of a knowledge based economy."

"The Committee has taken up the challenge of charting a new economic course for Canada," Ms. Whelan continued, and has proposed a broad productivity agenda, including an innovation component, "that will establish a solid industrial policy framework for a knowledge based economy on which to sustain a prosperous country."

• The broadening of the Government's innovation agenda with the objective of raising the business sector's growth rates above the average posted by the G-7 countries (See Chapter 1).

• The provision of incentives for technology adoption in the manufacturing sector and in small and medium-sized businesses (See Chapter 3).

• The commitment by the Government to a five-year plan of increasing expenditures for research and development (See Chapter 7).

• The establishment of a Lifelong Learning Education Savings Plan that would permit individuals and/or their employers to contribute, on a tax-free basis, towards skills training education (See Chapter 8).

• The raising of personal income tax brackets as well as the basic personal exemption (See Chapter 9).

"The Committee's primary objective," concluded Ms. Whelan, "is to provide the Government of Canada with guidance on industrial policies that will boost the nation's productivity, innovation and international competitiveness."

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