Canada's Western Schools and their partners rally to call for innovation
GO WEST
by Randall Anthony Mang
The West is on a roll. The provinces of Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan are leading the nation in economic growth – and Western Canada’s universities and other institutes of higher learning are answering a call for innovation. Through academic excellence, research and partnerships with industry, government and civic organizations, these institutes are building foundations of knowledge vital to local communities and critical to Canada’s future competitiveness.
University of Regina president Robert Hawkins says, “If we really want to build a strong and sustainable economy, we must diversify. Universities are key to that. The contributions we make are
helping put our economy on a broad-
based, sustainable footing as we move to
the future.”
University of Manitoba president Emöke Szathmáry passionately espouses a similar view. “In the 21st century, the real resource is knowledge. Science and technology and those who command knowledge will be the ones who succeed.
Appreciation of knowledge and innovation as competitive advantages is widening as the impacts of globalization and Asia’s rising economic superpower status increasingly hit home.
The University of Manitoba (U of M) counts the invention of canola, the discovery of a method to prevent Rh disease of the newborn, and new materials that have helped Canada build a world-class aerospace industry among its innovation successes. The school's independent research has produced breakthroughs in HIV/AIDS prevention and elucidation of the SARS genome. The U of M has worked closely with members of the National Microbiology Laboratory and the Public Health Agency of Canada since these institutions were established.
While Dr. Szathmáry views the world through a global lens, she also sees the university’s role inextricably tied with Manitoba’s – and Canada’s – success.
“The University of Manitoba is a provincial university, but provincial doesn’t mean parochial,” she says. “We deliver education for degrees in the arts and sciences, the professions as well as at the masters and doctoral levels that is globally competitive. We are the research engine in this province. We can do our best by our community by paying attention to it, and making the global, local.”
She notes Pricewaterhouse- Coopers studies have shown the university’s most recent annual impact on the province is in the order of $1.2 billion. “There is a cultural impact provided through the
university’s support of the arts and sports as well as conventions and conferences.”
Fundamentally, she says, U of M produces graduates “who may be recruited elsewhere, but who don’t forget where they were educated. “Our graduates are well placed,” she says, citing names including John Hunkin, Rick Waugh and Jim Burns among U of M alumni. “They connect us with the world.”
The University of Regina’s (U of R) Dr. Hawkins says serving the community and society “is at our roots and foundations,” a dedication this school expresses admirably.
In the resource and environmental sectors, for example, the U of R's groundbreaking work with the Petroleum Technology Research Centre is proving that injecting CO2 into nearly depleted oil wells increases production by forcing oil to the surface and is a viable means of trapping this climate-change-causing gas underground.
Meanwhile, the Communities of Tomorrow initiative, which involves the City of Regina, U of R and the National Research Council Canada, is advancing technologies for sustainable environmental infrastructure – answering a concern of cities worldwide.
Such projects not only advance Canadian leadership internationally, they also help attract world-class talent and build capacity in local communities, says Dr. Hawkins.
“There is appreciation here that this university is a agnet for talent, researchers and other creative people who contribute to economic development and the quality of life and the cultural life of Regina.” Building local apacity is literally the University of Northern British Columbia’s (UNBC) reason for being, yet its efforts also yield bigger- picture success for Canada.
UNBC president Dr. Charles Jago says the establishment of a major university in Prince George (population 77,000) was the result of citizen action and a strategic move to diversify the region’s resource economy.
“From the beginning, our focus has been on training people in accredited programs that matter to northern B.C. communities,” says Dr. Jago, citing health care, social work, environmental sciences and land-use planning among the school’s focus areas.
“If you look at the resource economy today, it’s high-tech, knowledge-driven and highly-productive. It absolutely requires highly skilled people. Our graduates are serving that role and moving into positions of leadership. About 60 per cent to 70 per cent of them stay in the local region.”
He also says UNBC’s efforts help communities address local issues. For example, after mine closures devastated Tumbler Ridge (a B.C. town virtually created to serve the coal industry), a UNBC team led by professor Greg Halseth joined community efforts to help the town through its transition. “Tumbler Ridge has survived and is now expanding,” says Dr. Jago.
“Working with communities and engaging communities is what we do. We are part of the culture, fully engaged, promoting social advancement and addressing local economic and social issues.”
Whether such efforts among western academics and their partners are in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta or B.C., it’s all good news for Canada.
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