Canada’s research and development share of the economy has slid for a decade, and the Carney government has yet to produce a serious counterweight. The SR&ED program remains unreformed, the capital-gains inclusion chaos destabilized the very investors innovation depends on, and the best-trained researchers keep receiving better offers from south of the border.
The pattern is consistent with the rest of the file: optics over structure. Announcements fund photo opportunities; the tax and regulatory settings that determine where a startup incorporates remain hostile. Ambition is mobile, and this government keeps raising its price.
A country that borrows to consume cannot also borrow its way to invention. Innovation policy is unglamorous — stable tax treatment, predictable regulation, patient capital — which is precisely why a government addicted to the announcement cycle will not do it.
The Point: A government that taxes ambition and subsidizes announcements will lose both. Innovation does not attend summits; it follows settings.