Industrial Innovation: Its Place in the Public Policy Agenda

J.V. Rahilly was an engineering librarian in Ontario.

Of course, intervention into economic activities by both the federal and all of the provincial governments is pervasive. Over half of our salaries go into the government coffers (through both direct and indirect taxation), while over 25 per cent of the Gross National Product is accounted for by government expenditures. This book tries to present the nature of Canadian industrial innovation insofar as it has economic effects and determinants, the federal government’s efforts to intrude into this essentially “free enterprise” area, and the impact of the multinational affiliates on the “research and development” outlays of monies in the commercial marketplace.

The author concludes that Canada’s support system of subsidies and, especially, tax-related aids to innovation is one of the most generous in the world. A comparative examination with the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and the United States apparently confirms this, all through an analysis of the respective country’s series of subsidies.