Canada's tech industry as roots in its own brain drain
OTTAWA, Dec 20, 1999 (The Canadian Press via COMTEX) -- Mick Chawner's
brain was drained nearly 30 years ago.
But Chawner wasn't poached from Canada by the U.S. He was lured from
England to work for a fast-growing hub of research in Ottawa called the
Bell Northern Research centre.
Back in the early 1970s, the centre was aggressively hiring Brits to
work in the burgeoning telecommunications field.
Chawner, along with others such as Corel's Michael Cowpland and
Newbridge's Terry Matthews, crossed the Atlantic to find an already
fertile research environment in Ottawa.
Those were the beginnings of furious growth in the technology industry
that persists today, with scientists and engineers branching out from
the major research centres and corporations to spin-off their own
companies.
Chawner went on to work for a half-dozen companies, ending up where he
is today as CEO of a successful fibre-optic firm called iMPATH.
He recently got an offer by Boston city developers to move down south,
but he refused and expanded into a new research lab in Ottawa instead.
''That could have been an easy step, but there's a good environment for
us here,'' said Chawner. ''The quality of life in Canada is higher in
our opinion. The people are available, we've not had a lot of
difficulty finding them.''
Canada's technology industry is firmly rooted in telecommunications,
which some hypothesize was due to Canada's harsh climate and
challenging geography.
Figuring out ways to connect Canadians from Rankin Inlet to Pelee
Island without the use of conventional copper wire was a major
motivation.
To this day, Canada is regarded as a world leader in telecom, with some
of the most advanced cellular, Internet and telephone equipment.
The sector traces its beginnings to the early part of this century,
with the creation of the National Research Centre in Ottawa, and later
the Communications Research Centre.
By the Second World War, Canada was a busy hub in the development of
military equipment, as well as telecommunications systems, boosted by
the defence-focus of the North American Aerospace Defence Command or
Norad.
In Montreal, aerospace companies like Spar and Bombardier were quickly
becoming world leaders in their fields. In the West, the oil and lumber
industries were creating a need for new technologies and innovations.
Later, research the University of Waterloo was spinning dozens of
companies off its esteemed computer science department.
But the real push was in the nation's capital.
A company called Computing Devices Canada arrived on the Ottawa scene
in 1948, and was one of the first major private businesses to be born
in the fertile research environment.
Two years later, Bell Canada and Northern Electric created the Bell
Northern Research Centre, which would later become Northern Telecom and
then powerhouse Nortel.
The BNR was a hotbed of innovation and a human resources gold mine.
Dozens of scientists and engineers emerged from the centre to become
entrepreneurs of their own successful firms.
Two cases in point: Cowpland and Matthews. The two formed
telecommunications firm Mitel in 1973; Cowpland switched into the
software business with Corel in 1985 and Matthews kicked off Newbridge
Networks a year later.
''A whole new industry was developing, and the product of this industry
was knowledge,'' says Bill Collins, executive director of the Ottawa
Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI).
''You really were at the beginnings of knowledge economies. So when
people got laid off work, unlike the old manufacturing society, where
the product just ceases to be produced, the product in this case was in
people's brains and they could move with it.''
Collins recalls that by the early 1980s in Ottawa, some local
entrepreneurs had set up bus tours of a burgeoning suburb called
Kanata, where technology firms had started to create their
mega-research centres.
OCRI was founded in 1983 with a budget of $200,000 and two employees: a
secretary and a president. The group was formed to help promote the
high tech sector in the region.
Today, OCRI has 72 employees and a budget of $6 million.
''There was a real revolution taking place, and it just kept on
building,'' Collins said.
''In Ottawa, because we had put together the right components to push
it, we grew with it.''
Canada's technology industry continues to blossom.
The number of jobs in the information and communications technologies
sector rose from 391,000 in 1990 to 481,000 in 1997, an increase of
23.1 per cent, says Statistics Canada.
In 1997, the sector represented 5.9 per cent of the total economy, up
from 4.4 per cent in 1993.
Information technologies are also expanding to include a host of
services, ranging from multimedia firms to specialized lawyers.
The economic power of the industry is not lost on the federal
government, which in recent years has put increasing emphasis on the
importance of a ''knowledge-based economy.''
Prime Minister Jean Chretien focused on new technologies and electronic
commerce in the recent throne speech, emphasizing that Canada should
not be left behind on the world stage.
Shahla Aly, vice-president of e-business services for IBM Global
Services, sees Canada's technology sector branching in to two main
areas: pervasive computing and trading networks.
Pervasive computing refers to a post-personal-computer world, where the
home computer will no longer be the only way to work, computers will be
everywhere.
Picture this: your alarm clock wakes you up 20 minutes early because
the network it is connected to detects a traffic jam on the way to
work. At the same time, your blinds go up and the coffee maker starts
up.
In the car, your mapping system shows you the fastest routes, and
another gadget allows you send e-mail and check on the stock market.
''Chips are so cheap and so small that they are placed everywhere,''
said Aly. ''It's an environment of pure computing. It's going to allow
you to compute any time, anywhere.''
Trading networks, explains Aly, will be areas on the Internet where
companies that have common interests gather to trade goods -- something
like a sophisticated village green of yesteryear.
For example, grocers, food producers, restaurants, packagers and the
like could congregate online to buy and sell their wares in a sort of
virtual business community.
If this is the wave of the future, are Canadian technology firms ready
for it?
Definitely, says Aly.
''We have the infrastructure and the know-how to get there, and we are
one of the most connected nations in the world,'' she says.
But the real problem is a social one. ''Do we eat our own cooking?''
Aly asks of Canadians.
The major technology firms are still selling most of their products to
the United States. Canada is too small of a market, and some sectors
have yet to embrace the digital revolution.
Chawner of iMPATH sells complex fibre-optic technology to help monitor
traffic and speed on highways, but so far the bulk of his business is
with American cities.
Retailers have fallen far behind the U.S. in getting online, driving a
new cross-border shopping spree over the Internet.
Michael Binder, assistant deputy minister of spectrum, information
technologies and telecommunications at Industry Canada, says Canadians
have traditionally been more cautious entrepreneurs.
But he says risks are what the Internet and electronic commerce are all
about, and remaining on the sidelines is no longer an option.
''If you're going to wait for a business plan ... instead of doing a
leap of faith, you're going to be waiting a long time,'' Binder said.
''It's easy for a bureaucrat to sit here in Ottawa and say that, but
there is no reason the Americans should have double the number of
online retailers as we do.''
Collins of OCRI says the technology sector has everything going for it
as we approach 2000, but should stop thinking of itself as second-class
to Americans.
''I don't use the term Silicon Valley North, because that says we're
second best,'' Collins said.
''We're not Silicon Valley, we're Ottawa, and we're damned good.''
Copyright (c) 1999 The Canadian Press (CP), All rights reserved.
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By Jennifer Ditchburn
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