Pierre Fitzgibbon’s cake recipe

Quebec is a global hub for artificial intelligence. However, we still use fax machines in our health care system, the management of construction sites in Montreal seems to represent an insoluble puzzle and the aging of the population takes us by surprise as if it were an unforeseeable phenomenon.

It is for this – and for a thousand other reasons of the same kind – that the Minister of Economy and Innovation, Pierre Fitzgibbon, tabled last week what he called the “squared SQRI”.

The Quebec Strategy for Research and Investment in Innovation.

The 90-page document aims to provide an overview of the entire research chain in Quebec, with a budget of $7.5 billion over 5 years.

This strategy has been well received, and with good reason. The CAQ is known to act quickly, sometimes a little too much. This time the government took its time. No less than 233 briefs were received before the document was produced. Obviously they have been read.

The essence of this SQRI^⁠2 can be summed up simply: Quebec must make better use of its strengths in research. Much better.

Like many before him, Mr. Fitzgibbon notes that Quebec is among the international leaders for the vigor of its scientific research. But this bubbling is struggling to leave the walls of universities and research centers.

We have said it over and over again: we need to better “market” this research. Our companies innovate little and their productivity is lagging behind. In the context of a labor shortage, this is particularly problematic. More than ever, we must do more with less. It requires being inventive.

But where Mr. Fitzgibbon’s strategy is particularly interesting is in his willingness to use innovation not only to do business, but also to find solutions to our societal problems.

Quebec is currently facing colossal challenges. It is engaged in an overhaul of its health system. It has to deal with the aging of its population. Above all, it must transform into a low-carbon society while adapting to the impacts of climate change.

These shifts require new ideas and our researchers must be put to work. This will is not new, but it shows through more clearly than ever in the SQRI^⁠2. So much the better.

Obviously, if it is quite easy to write the right things in a strategy, it is much more difficult to implement it so that it achieves its objectives.

The SQRI^⁠2 make the correct diagnoses. It also sets specific targets, always defined in relation to Ontario (a personal obsession of François Legault). An example: we want to increase from 71% to 76% the share of companies that innovate in their business processes to catch up with the neighboring province.

The general objective of the SQRI^⁠2 is to halve our productivity gap with Ontario within five years (it is 5.8%).

To measure progress, an “innovation barometer” has been created, modeled on Minister Christian Dubé’s dashboard in the health network. We can only applaud.

It remains to be seen whether the measures announced will be sufficient to resolve the problems that have haunted Quebec for decades. To encourage the Ministry of Health and Social Services to turn to Quebec research, for example, a “strategic innovation committee” has been set up there. Will it instill real culture change or add another layer of bureaucracy? To be continued.

The same is true when we are promised that Investissement Québec and the new Conseil de l’innovation du Québec will integrate sustainable development into their decisions. Someone will have to make sure that those nice words turn into actions.

With his strategy on research and innovation, Minister Fitzgibbon looks like a cook who has just written down what looks like an excellent recipe for cake. There remains the most difficult: getting into the kitchen and making the said cake rise.

You have to be ready to crack eggs and stir some mixture.