Hewers of wood and drawers of water

There is a person I know who was hired, quite a number of years ago, by an Island company to do research and development (R and D). He worked here for a couple of years and then the company was sold to a multinational, which centralized R and D in a U.S. facility. The person could have possibly gone there, he did not want to leave Canada, and did not want to work in the U.S. So, he returned to Toronto.

Were things likely to be better in Toronto? There is another person I know who started R and D work over 30 years ago at Connaught Laboratories in Toronto. Now Connaught Laboratories was a bright star in our Canadian history, because it evolved from the Nobel Prizewinning discovery of insulin by Frederick Banting and Charles Best. But if the name exists at all anymore, it identifies the Toronto “campus” of the huge multinational pharmaceutical company, Sanofi-Aventis-Pasteur.

Since Sanofi locates all R and D in Europe, the person I know at Sanofi was lucky to have made a lateral move out of R and D before the axe fell.

Canadian political scientists have long been concerned about the loss of R and D. The shift of R and D out of Canada contributes to the so-called “brain drain”. Our brightest and best go elsewhere. The ideas and innovations these individuals might have developed here become the “property” of other countries — the U.S., the EU and elsewhere. And the lack of opportunities at home may prompt some of our brightest — maybe a large number of our brightest — to choose other courses of study (heaven help us, some may even become lawyers).

The loss of R and D at home effectively makes us “hewers of wood and drawers of water”. Yes, we will continue to have a workable economy based largely upon the supply of raw materials, mainly to our southern neighbour. And, yes, there will be manufacturing — principally in companies owned by multinationals. And yes, there will be research in universities, but research not tied directly to production.

And now government shortsightedness has come home to roost. It is not possible to develop and produce the needed COVID-19 vaccine in Canada. While I would love to blame the current federal government for this, it is the product of neglect by a number of successive governments.

There are rules under the Investment Canada Act which mandate review of foreign acquisitions of Canadian companies under certain circumstances. One of those circumstances could easily have been retention of R and D in Canada.

Of course, that could still be done. But there are horses and barn doors, and while we could now certainly shut the barn door, the horse has long since galloped.

David Bulger, LL.B., LL.M., is retired from teaching Political Science and Philosophy at the University of P.E.I.