News Release August 3, 2018 – Ottawa, Ontario
On June 19, the Government of Canada launched a national consultation on digital and data transformation. The Canada-wide consultation will help the government understand how Canadians want to drive innovation in a data economy, prepare for the future of work and ensure that citizens have trust and confidence in how their data is used.
The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, today announced that six innovation experts have been selected to host these roundtable discussions with Canadians across the country. Many of these leaders were part of the Innovation Agenda consultations in 2016 that supported the development of the Government’s Innovation and Skills Plan, announced in Budget 2017.
The digital innovation leaders are:
Janie Béïque, Executive Vice-President, Investments, Fonds de solidarié FTQ
Dr. Arvind Gupta, professor of computer science at the University of Toronto and former president and vice-chancellor of the University of British Columbia
Sarah Lubik, Director of Entrepreneurship for Simon Fraser University
Carole Piovesan, lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault
Mark Podlasly, founder of Brookmere Management Group
Ilse Treurnicht, former CEO of MaRS Discovery District
From early August to mid-September, these leaders will host roundtable discussions in cities across Canada with business, academia, civil society and others. Target cities for roundtables include Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Halifax, St. John’s, Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit.