Ottawa beats Toronto to the cleantech punch
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007Sorry I haven’t posted for a few days — I just bought a house and have been busy ripping up floors and knocking down walls.
I did, however, want to point out that on June 7 the mayor of Ottawa and the head of the Ontario Centre for Research and Innovation are announcing the creation of the Ottawa Clean Energy Cluster — essentially a support network for cleantech-focused companies in Ottawa and surrounding areas in eastern Ontario. The cluster program is being spearheaded by the Ottawa Cleantech Initiative (a program with OCRI).
Of course, this is what Toronto and surrounding southern Ontario communities should have done a long time ago, and which I’ve been harping on for some time now (BTW: something is in the works — stay tuned). Perhaps Mayor David Miller will realize now how much he’s been dragging his feet on this issue by not promoting local clean energy/technology companies.
That said, I’m happy to see Ottawa doing something because it will perhaps spread across the province. Coincidentally, my Clean Break column on Monday lamented the fact that Ontario (and Toronto) has done a poor job of promoting (or acknowledging the existence of) cleantech companies in its own back yard. This was brought home to me after California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Ontario last week and heavily promoted his state’s cleantech sector. He showed us how it should be done, or at the very least how we aren’t doing it.
I should point out, however, that our private sector needs to do a better job as well. This is about marketing our best, raising capital and strengthening one of the fastest growing markets we’ve seen in a long time. There are a lot of jobs on the line.
BTW: I didn’t know this, but Canada apparently does have a cleantech companies competition. Obviously, this is another thing in need of stronger marketing. Jeesh!
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
