For Immediate Release
October 14, 2008

ONTARIO ATTRACTING TALENT

Ontario’s commitment to innovation is turning the province into a magnet for world-class talent.

The latest example is Dr. Shoo Lee, newly-appointed paediatrician-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital and head of the neonatology division at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Lee is a world-renowned neonatologist and health economist. He has a truly international education, receiving his medical degree from the University of Singapore, completing his paediatric training at the Janeway Children’s Health Centre in Newfoundland and neonatal fellowship training at Children’s Hospital Boston. He also earned a PhD in Health Policy (Economics) from Harvard University.

He comes to Toronto most recently from the University of Alberta.

Ontario has committed $15 million to help Dr. Lee establish a permanent home in Toronto for the International Centre for Neonatal-Perinatal Research. This centre coordinates a number of research units across the globe dedicated to the health of newborn children. Together, these research units serve two-thirds of the world’s population.

See MOH news release

In a recent interview with the Globe and Mail, Dr. Lee said that “Ontario is one of the very few centres in the world, and really one of the few centres in Canada, that has got the breadth and the depth of capacity to really be a world-class research and health-care centre and compete on the world stage with the likes of Harvard and Stanford.”

He also said that it is Ontario’s commitment and strong support for innovation and the commercialization of research that attracted him to our province.

Ontario is building on this strength.

In fact, supporting research and innovation is part of our five point plan for the economy.

We are investing $3 billion over eight years, through Ontario’s Innovation Agenda, to make Ontario the best place in the world to conduct leading-edge research and turn great ideas into products and services and technologies that are in demand around the world.

We are focusing our support on key sectors that will strengthen our economy.

And we are committed to ensuring that our legacy of ingenuity and global research excellence will translate into good paying jobs and better lives for Ontario families. 

Our priority is to invest in areas where Ontario has the talent, research strengths and industrial capability not only to compete in the global marketplace — but to lead the world.

Here are our priorities:

1. Health science and advanced health technologies
2. Pushing the envelope on developing new clean technologies and solutions to help us tackle climate change
3. Digital media, information and communications technologies
4. Fundamental science, innovation and advanced manufacturing

These areas represent our greatest strengths.

Through Ontario’s Innovation Agenda, we are ensuring our province stays at the forefront of the industries that will shape our future.

Working together, we are attracting some of the brightest and most innovative minds in the world, while creating Ontario’s next generation of jobs and prosperity.

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See also:

• News Release: MOH news release