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The Business Council of Canada (BCC)—a lobby group comprised of the CEOs of some of the country’s largest firms, like TD Bank, Enbridge and Bombardier—is making the case that Ottawa’s pandemic-recovery plan needs to prioritize economic growth.

In a report released Wednesday, the association diagnoses a series of issues—insufficient R&D commercialization, a labour force-job market mismatch, and low private-sector investment—and suggests ways the government could address them. Here are the highlights for the innovation economy: 

Pay for domestic innovation: Public spending on R&D isn’t turning into economic growth, the report argues. It calls for more innovation-focused procurement, and suggests a challenge-based approach like that used by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which puts up cash prizes for teams that hit its technology goals. In October 2019, BCC members themselves committed to invest more in and buy more from startups and scale-ups. 

Wednesday’s report also suggests the federal government consider targeting its business support to sectors where the country has existing advantages, citing agri-food, energy and renewables, health care and advanced manufacturing as examples. Canada currently has “a fragmented and unconvincing industrial policy,” it says, while governments in the U.S., Europe and Asia are taking a more active approach. The Council of Canadian Innovators, a scale-up lobby group, made a similar critique in an open letter published yesterday.

Special skills: The report calls for more training and paid placement spots for workers to transition into the digital-economy labour force, citing Palette, a non-profit that prepares non-traditional candidates for new jobs, mostly in tech. It also recommends setting up digital-economy leadership-development programs and overhauling the employment insurance system to emphasize retraining. 

Build this: Expanding 5G and broadband infrastructure to improve coverage and connectivity would benefit industries like agriculture, health care and transportation, according to the report. Earlier this month, the Canada Infrastructure Bank pledged to spend $2 billion on internet-access projects, doubling its earlier commitment. The federal government has also promised to spend $1.7 billion directly through a new connectivity fund. Neither program has started spending that money. To generate further cash for infrastructure builds, the BCC suggests charging access fees and privatizing existing facilities. Reports prepared for then-finance minister Bill Morneau’s Economic Growth Council estimated selling off airports, utilities and other assets could net the government $200 billion, The Logic reported in July 2018.