SPEECHES
June 5, 2006
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic
2006/9
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NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY
THE HONOURABLE PETER MACKAY,
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND
MINISTER OF THE ATLANTIC CANADA OPPORTUNITIES AGENCY,
AT THE PLENARY SESSION OF THE 36TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
This is my very first OAS meeting, and I am honoured to join in the traditions of this
assembly in such esteemed company and to be part of the foreign ministers family here
at the table at this important gathering.
“Good Governance and Development in the Knowledge-Based Society” is certainly an
important topic in many countries, including Canada. It is a worthy theme for this
assembly. It has become a major topic of discussion, a discussion I am pleased to
participate in here in Santo Domingo.
Faced, therefore, with both an impressive theme and an impressive group of people, I
thought I would approach this the best way I know how—by talking briefly about my
region and the Canadian perspective and the understanding that the Canadian
government brings to these issues and takes to these important discussions.
I am fortunate to come from a beautiful part of the world, a small province in Canada
called Nova Scotia. For centuries, we built our economy on our comparative strengths,
which were not unlike those of the Caribbean—fishing, mining, forestry and agriculture,
together with the secondary industries that supported them, including boat building.
In fact, many of our traditional exports went south to the Caribbean and beyond, and
that is one of the reasons I am so glad to be here. We were early free traders, many
years before it was talked about in a formal capacity. As I met with representatives of
CARICOM [Caribbean Community] this morning, I was reminded of the great tradition
that existed when salt fish and lumber went to the Caribbean in exchange for rum,
sugar, molasses and fruit. And there was the boat building that went on, as the Age of
Sail was still very much alive.
In Nova Scotia, we have always been open to the world. As exporters, sailors, teachers
or investors, we have always felt at home in the Americas. I want to signal early on that
you can count on my personal support and commitment to expand Canadian relations
throughout this hemisphere.
When we think of resource industries, the image is of rugged people battling the
elements to struggle to earn a living, and there is a lot of truth to that. But there is
another part of our heritage that is not nearly so rustic: from the very beginnings of
Canada, Nova Scotia has been a leading centre of education. In fact, our capacity to
produce educated and talented people exceeded our capacity to absorb them. And so
the rest of Canada benefited enormously from Nova Scotia’s dedication to learning, as
our people took up leading positions in industry, academia and government throughout
Canada.
Today that is all changing. In a dramatic and very visible way, local people with talent
are staying at home, finding jobs that keep them busy and productive. Even more
important, many young people are creating jobs—for themselves and others—in areas
that are entirely new to that part of the world.
Suddenly, from being a resource-dependent province, we now have a booming
knowledge community that just keeps expanding and finding new ways to express
talent and business sense. This is a good thing, because many traditional natural
resource industries depend on fluctuating world markets and have declined. If we
hadn’t been able to expand into the knowledge-based economy and industry, we would
have been in serious trouble. And I am sure this has been a common experience.
How did this happen? A tradition of education certainly contributes. A safe, clean and
attractive place to live is one of the basics. Government support in various shapes is not
insignificant. But it is the will of the people—their ingenuity, business investment and
entrepreneurship—that will truly lead to success.
Trying to figure out how we can promote more of this success is one of the reasons I
first entered public life. Now, as a member of the Canadian government, I am part of a
team that is moving forward and has the chance to do just that. We want to capitalize
on natural advantages and relationships, and modernize our traditional relationships... if
I can put it in nautical terms, we want to “recapture the wind” that once drove our
economies.
We all know that, for modern economies, the knowledge-based industries are critically
important. This is true for a resource-rich country like Canada, but it is also true for
countries like Singapore or Switzerland, where a lack of natural resources has required
knowledge-based economic activities from the beginning. We are developing policies
over the next year to promote a more competitive, innovative and productive Canadian
economy.
Let me give you just one fact that brings home the need for constant innovation that has
broader applications for all communities: more than half the jobs in Canada today did
not exist prior to 1997. This demonstrates the enormous growth that is happening in our
economy in high tech.
Innovation is one of the most important priorities, and we are committed to getting more
people actively involved in our own economy as well as in other economies. Jobs lead
to prosperity and a better quality of life. The old expression “a rising tide raises all
boats” comes to mind.
The Canadian approach is no secret: we want government to facilitate creativity, not
stifle it through excessive controls and excessive taxes. We believe government can
help entrepreneurs create jobs, but it cannot necessarily tell them how to do so. They
create the conditions and confidence for investment, both domestically and
internationally, through sources and contacts. We believe that people who are given the
political, economic and social space to be innovative will create entire worlds of
opportunity. We believe that people who know that their rights under the law are
protected will be prepared to take the risks involved in investment, because they know
that they do so on a bedrock of security and stability.
This brings us back to the theme of this assembly. As I see it, good governance in a
knowledge-based society demands a functioning democracy, under law, where
individual rights are protected and individual creativity is encouraged and embraced.
Knowledge is indeed power, and political power does its job best when it serves
knowledge, and when it provides citizens with the means and the support that they
need to be more creative and more prosperous.
It is a mutually beneficial relationship that we value greatly. Canada has considerable
experience and expertise, and we know that other countries in this room also have
important lessons to teach. To be frank, we are here to learn as much as to share our
own experiences.
Canada will continue to support efforts to bridge the digital divide by renewing our
support for the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas, and we hope that others will
do the same. We also remain committed to working within the OAS, and with national
governments as well, to strengthen democratic governance. We want to work with our
hemispheric partners so that, together, we can find ways to promote greater innovation
and prosperity throughout the Americas.
Thank you for the opportunity for this intervention.
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