Canadian Competitiveness in the Health Life Sciences

The Canadian federal government’s recently launched Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy (BLSS) arrives on the scene after several peer countries have been moving quickly, and seriously, with their own health life sciences strategies. While Canada’s plan has much in common with the main themes of these other plans, it is questionable whether the proper policy infrastructure exists here for Canada to keep up in the highly competitive global health life sciences sector. It is within this context that the present report aims to present a high-level overview of Canadian competitiveness in the health life sciences sector. Because an understanding of the past and current commitments from the federal government is vital to peering into Canada’s health life sciences support apparatus, a necessary first step is as analysis of the current program landscape, which is marked by fragmentation and duplication. The resulting database of subsidies and programs, the first of its kind in Canada, will be useful to innovators, researchers, or others interested in the health life sciences. A thriving life sciences sector projects the image of a society that values knowledge and innovation but also social responsibility, as beyond the pursuit of growth and profit, the life sciences sector is oriented towards public goods. The forces that shape the sector are truly global and governments around the world share the same three goals. The first is to support functional and productive knowledge networks engaged in basic and applied research. The second is to foster the development of a competitive market with players that can withstand financial risk and make long-term commitments. The third is to provide leadership to the sector, based on confidence and dialogue between stakeholders and government.