As published in the July 1, 2002 edition of The Toronto Star. 

Recently, Prime Minister Jean Chretien came to Waterloo to announce $25 million in direct federal funding for the Perimeter Institute over the next five years.

A few days later, on June 17, the Ontario budget was unveiled, containing an additional three-year commitment of $15 million to the institute over and above a previously announced Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund (ORDCF) grant of $6 million to be shared between Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo's new Institute for Quantum Computing.
Both the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT) recently announced infrastructural contributions of $5.6 million each to go toward the development of the new Perimeter Institute building.
In light of all of these public monies committed, in excess of $54 million, it is important to communicate a sense of why both levels of government feel so strongly about supporting an initiative as seemingly arcane and abstruse as a theoretical physics institute.

As is well-publicized, both the federal and provincial governments are continually moving forward with an innovation agenda to greatly strengthen Canada's and Ontario's capacity for research and development. There is much talk about us living in a "knowledge society" and some aspects of this expression are doubtless hyped beyond a reasonable degree.
But there is one thing that almost everyone can agree on: In a society of freely flowing people and capital, it is paramount to have a world-class educational and research system to attract and retain the best and the brightest from around the globe.
And in a world where the global leaders are categorized by advanced scientific discoveries and technical sophistication, it is absolutely necessary to change the culture and reputation of Canada from a conservative, resource-based economy to one of trailblazing acumen in both the pure and applied sciences.

Government has long recognized that changing this culture by itself is a formidable, and virtually impossible, task. That is why both levels of government have so fervently talked of the necessity of forming private-public sector partnerships to marry the mutual goals of the corporate or philanthropic arena with that of government to bring meritorious causes to fruition.
Mike Lazaridis, the founder of Perimeter Institute, has personally committed $100 million of his own resources to found and develop the institute, while two of his colleagues, Doug Fregin and Jim Balsillie, have committed an additional $10 million each.
With such an overpowering personal private sector commitment toward an endeavour that was strongly supported by the National Science and Engineering Research Council and had already passed peer review, both levels of government felt not only comfortable in supporting Perimeter, but recognized the strict necessity of doing so, despite the fact that no obvious mechanism existed for this support.

The message is clear: Should anyone else be willing to pony up staggering personal sums for an activity that can clearly and objectively be demonstrated to be in the nation's and province's interest, government would be delighted to tangibly demonstrate its support to ensure that the venture can be successful at the highest possible level.
Here we see innovation agendas coming full circle - back to imbue the very governments that sponsored them with a flexibility and determination to positively respond to exceptional cases.

When publicly contemplating the future, Lazaridis likes to imagine a future where Canada can one day be branded as "the wisest country."

We may not, he says, be an overpowering military or economic power, but with a concerted effort we could become regarded as a global leader in human capital, a culture where international excellence in the arts and sciences reigns supreme and where intellectual visionaries are welcomed, cultivated and wholeheartedly embraced to our own overwhelming benefit.

Now that would be innovative indeed.

Howard Burton is executive director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.