Speech

Remarks by
Tony Wong, Parliamentary Assistant MRI
At the University of Toronto ceremony honouring ERA award recipients

April 20, 2006 -- CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Thank you John (Challis) for that kind introduction.

On behalf of Premier and Minister of Research and Innovation Dalton McGuinty, I congratulate all of you here at the University of Toronto on your great success. Winning 21 of 64 Early Researcher Awards is an impressive achievement.

The Premier thinks that innovation is so important to our future that he has made himself Ontario's first Minister of Research and Innovation.

And it is my great honour and privilege to work with him as his Parliamentary Assistant.

One of our top priorities is to maximize the benefits that your research can bring to the people of Ontario and the world. To do that, we must support promising young researchers. And what better place to nurture early research than here at the U of T?

The University of Toronto has a long and distinguished history of both research and innovation. U of T researchers and graduates played both lead and supporting roles in everything from:

• Frost-resistant wheat, Pablum and plants that can grow in saline soil,
• To electron microscopes, jet engines and photodegradable plastics
• And on through numerous medical discoveries that help battle diseases ranging from cystic fibrosis to Alzheimer's.

The U of T attracts some of the world's brightest young scholars. I can prove it to you, scientifically. Look to your left, and look to your right. There's two examples right there!

You lead the country in Tier II Canada Research Chairs for emerging research stars, with 134.

You are researching a diverse group of subjects. Whether it is developing speech recognition programs, or anti-malarial drugs, or modeling climate change, or studying genetic mutations, you have at least one thing in common. Like Banting and Best and Mak and Polanyi and many others before you, your work will benefit a great number of people. And improve our quality of life.

Programs like the Early Researcher Awards are vital to this process. And we are expanding them:

The budget allocated $17 million for three new awards programs:

• five annual Innovators Awards of $200,000, for excellence in innovation and entrepreneurship
• four annual Senior Researcher Awards totaling $1.5 million to recognize achievement in life sciences and medicine, natural sciences and engineering, social sciences, and innovation leadership
• and 40 annual two-year fellowships, worth $50,000, for post-doctoral students.

Through these programs and others, we look forward to partnering with you in the years to come.

The Premier has said that he wants innovation to be more than possible in Ontario — he wants it to be inevitable. His goal is to create a culture of innovation that puts Ontario at the forefront.

Here at the U of T, your advantages include a tradition of discovery, rising research stars, strong investment, and global connections. You're creating a fertile environment that truly is making innovation inevitable.

My congratulations to all of you on your past and future achievements.

Thank you.