ITIF President Wonders Whether Canada Has the “Political Will” to Fix Its Productivity Issues

Rob Atkinson, a Canadian-born economist who has served several White House administrations including the current one, decided it was time to bring some of what he learned home.

For the last 18 years, he’s led the Washington, DC-based think tank Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). On Tuesday, he launched its Ottawa affiliate, the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness (CCIC).

Prior to the launch event, which featured a panel on a new report called Assessing Canadian Innovation, Productivity, and Competitiveness, CCIC held a dinner to discuss the long-standing issue of Canada’s productivity woes.

BetaKit spoke with Atkinson to get his take on the perennial issue, and the conversation veered into how Canada might want to be more like the United States when it comes to innovation, how it should approach Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentives, and why innovators need a “killer instinct.”