
Français		Home		Contact Us		Help		Search		canada.gc.ca		Canada International

Home > Media Room

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

Canadian Offices Abroad

Services for Canadian Travellers

Services for Business

Canada in the World

About the Department

SPEECHES

2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996

Print friendly version - Printing Tips

<html> <head> <meta name="generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 10"> <meta http-equiv="content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <style> p { margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1px } body { font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal } </style> </head> <body> June 5, 2006 SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic 2006/9 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY 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. </body> </html>

2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996

Print friendly version - Printing Tips



Last Updated: 2006-10-30	Top of Page	Important Notices