Released on March 11, 2011
The 184 clients of Saskatchewan Opportunities Corporation's Innovation Place employed more than 5,000 people and collectively contributed more than $919 million to the provincial economy in 2010.
The economic impact estimate is based on an annual survey of the clients of the research parks in Saskatoon and Regina and the Forest Centre in Prince Albert. The survey was conducted in October and November of 2010.
"A strong and growing science and technology sector benefits everyone in the province of Saskatchewan," Minister responsible for Saskatchewan Opportunities Corporation Rob Norris said. "Innovation Place provides unique environments that attract like minded organizations looking to collaborate on new ideas and new opportunities."
"Innovation Place is specifically designed to encourage interactions among our clients," Innovation Place President and CEO Doug Tastad said. "Having a critical mass of expertise in key areas like ag-biotech, mining technology and health informatics is attractive to newcomers to the province as well as homegrown startup and early stage companies."
The mandate of Innovation Place is to support the growth and success of Saskatchewan's science and technology sector. In 2010, Innovation Place provided a first home in Saskatchewan for eight out-of-province organizations, two of which have their head offices in the United States. Six new Saskatchewan startup companies also had their first commercial space in the research parks in 2010.
The economic impact study is an annual survey of the tenants of the research parks in Saskatoon and Regina and the Forest Centre in Prince Albert. The 2010 survey was conducted by Fast Consulting of Saskatchewan and used information such as the total value of local goods and service and staff salaries to determine the combined economic impact of the clients' activities based on an economic model developed at the University of Saskatchewan.
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For more information, contact:
Austin Beggs
Innovation Place
Saskatoon
Phone: 306-933-7464
Email: Austin@innovationplace.com
Cell: 306-227-1636
Doug Fast
FAST Consulting
Saskatoon
Phone: 306-956-3070
Email: d.fast@fastconsulting.ca