Our macro-economic policy is paying off. In fact, Canada's business environment is now ranked third in the world by the World Economic Forum , and second in the G7. But Canadian companies and research institutions aren't taking enough advantage of this business environment to increase their productivity. These are key challenges because they are critical components to improving our standard of living. Here I've divided innovation into four categories.
Innovation requires a knowledge infrastructure.
And we've helped build a new kind of knowledge infrastructure with the Information Highway. The Information Highway will change productivity, change our standard of living, and have an impact on every aspect of innovation. That's why Connecting Canadians has been at the forefront of the Government's strategy to promote innovation. We have provided over 125,000 computers for schools , and we are providing public Internet access for up to 10,000 rural, remote and urban locations. We announced funding to establish, by the Year 2000, one world-class Smart Community demonstration project in each province, the North and an Aboriginal community.