Canada needs to get moving on innovation ASAP

There’s lots of talk, but not a lot of action

When it comes to innovation, Canada could learn a thing or two from China.

At a recent high-tech exposition in Beijing, engineers unveiled their latest concept: a Transit Elevated Bus or TSB.

It’s a simple, but brilliant, idea. Picture an elevated electric-powered bus that straddles two lanes of traffic, allowing cars and trucks to pass beneath it.

As it travels along on a special track at up to 65 kilometres per hour, the TSB can reportedly carry as many as 1,400 passengers, replacing 40 conventional buses and sharply reducing much of the fuel and emissions associated with them.

Since it travels at grade, the TSB eliminates the need to build costly underground subway tunnels or elevated guideways, and it can be brought into service far more quickly than traditional mass transit systems. How quickly?

Well, according to China’s state-owned CCTV network, the city of Qinhuangdao — roughly 300 kilometres east of Beijing on the Yellow Sea — is set to roll out the first TSB by the end of this year.

Compare that to Edmonton’s problemplagued, $600-million Metro LRT Line. It pokes along at a top-end speed of 25 kilometres per hour, creating emissions spiking traffic snarls more than two years after it was originally scheduled to begin regular service.

Still, a word of caution is in order. China’s newfangled TSB is still a concept, not an actual working vehicle. There have been other reports about amazing new inventions in the Chinese media. Time will tell if this one pans out.

But in a country where 21.5 million new passenger cars were sold in 2015 — about two million more than in Canada and the U.S. combined — it’s clear the Chinese government is serious about dealing with congestion as well as rising emissions.

China is nothing if not ambitious. According to a new report by McKinsey Global Institute, China is spending more on infrastructure than North America and Western Europe combined.

I found myself thinking about China’s embrace of the future this week, as the Trudeau government’s innovation czar — Navdeep Bains, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development — unveiled the latest federal effort to improve Canada’s lowly status among the world’s high-tech powerhouses.

Judging from media reports, Bains’ strategy to date remains very much a work in progress. It’s not a strategy at all, but a call for yet another round of consultations on how to come up with a strategy.

That’s not a bad thing, of course. Consultations are a good thing. So far, the Trudeau government is big on talk and not so big on action, whether it’s new oil pipelines, new liquefied natural gas plants or the future of Canada Post. There is simply no real sense of urgency.

While the national economy sputters, the prime minister fantasizes about Canada’s “resourcefulness” while posing for photos at U.S. tech giants such as Google.

Here’s the simple, unavoidable truth: Canada’s 10 largest publicly traded tech companies are worth less than Suncor Energy, and a single major U.S. tech giant like Microsoft has a market cap that’s exponentially larger than Canada’s entire tech sector.

I wish Bains well. He sounds like a smart guy, with extensive public and private sector work experience. He deserves some time to come up with a coherent plan.

Serial tech entrepreneur Ashif Mawji, the founder and former CEO of Edmonton’s Upside Software — sold to U.S.-based Sci Quest Inc. in 2012 for $22 million US — is also watching how the innovation agenda unfolds. Mawji offered three recommendations to accelerate innovation:

One, set up designated tax-free zones to attract foreign investors, startups and other tech companies to Canada. Two, establish “mini X Prizes” — awards to foster groundbreaking scientific inventions — to stimulate innovation in specific fields. And three, integrate entrepreneurial studies within the K-to-12 educational system.

“At the end of the day if you don’t start from the ground up — meaning, teaching our youth and helping them understand what entrepreneurialism is all about — then you’re not going to plant the seeds for the next generation of entrepreneurs,” he says.

“I think entrepreneurship is sometimes looked at as greed. But if you look at guys like (Facebook founder) Mark Zuckerberg or (Microsoft founder) Bill Gates or ( billionaire investor) Warren Buffett, sure, they’ve made a ton of money. But look at what they’re giving back, and what they’re doing with it. ”