Policy Rationale for Innovation Parks in Canada

Abstract

Innovation Parks became an innovation and economic development policy instrument in the Western world more than two decades ago. While Canada was slow to catch up to this phenomenon, it did eventually join the trend. This study analyzes the policy rationales for innovation parks in Canada through a national and sub-national lens. For this purpose, Ontario and Saskatchewan are chosen as comparative points. It compares the Saskatchewan Innovation Place (SIP), McMaster Innovation Park (MIP), and David Johnston Research and Technology Park (DJRTP). The study develops a three-pronged analysis of institutions, interests and ideas to explain why governments support innovation parks as a policy instrument. It is argued that the continued support of these initiatives is largely a function of institutional path-dependence and policy lock-ins manifest through sunk infrastructure investments, desire to balance different interest groups – mainly the commercial real estate sector and the organizations representing the research parks. These institutional and structural struggles are underpinned by the ideational frames of economic development and knowledge-based economic growth.