Innovation capacity in the Ontarian system of water use

This research is done for a master thesis in public administration and a comparative international study of DHV. It describes the innovative capacity in the system of water use in Ontario and gives some recommendations for the Ontarian and Dutch governments. The innovative capacity in a normal system can be explained by elements of innovation theory. A company innovates to create a temporary monopoly on the market. In a governmental organized sector the drive to find innovations is less apparent because the organizations already have a monopoly. Political pressure or other elements can be of influence on a governmental controlled sector and thus also on it’s innovative capacity. Besides scientific relevance knowledge about the elements that explain the innovative capacity the research also is relevant for the society. The Dutch ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment and the ministry of Roads and Waterworks are working on a long-term innovation vision for the Dutch system of water use. This research can be used to identify elements for this long-term innovation vision. The main question of this research is: What explains the innovative capacity in the system of water use in Ontario? The four sub questions of this research are: 1. How is the system of water use organized in Ontario? 2. In what way is the innovation system in Ontario organized? 3. What constitutes the innovative capacity in Ontario? 4. What are the barriers and drivers in the innovative process in the system of water use in Ontario and how can the government influences these barriers and drivers to increase the innovative capacity? In the innovation literature is there no model that describes the innovative capacity in a governmental organized sector. The model in Figure 1 is created for the comparative research based on different theories. The most important theories that where used for the model are the National Innovation System, the diamond of Porter, the triple helix model and the model for national innovative capacity by Furman, Porter and Stern. The model is build on three components: the country specific elements, the organizations and the clusters of organizations. These components are related to the innovative capacity with the use of the definition. The definition of innovative capacity as used in this research is the ability of institutions and their relations in the system of water use to create, collect, interpret and implant new ideas, designs and application to products and services in practice over the long term. For this research three analyses are done: a context analysis, an actor analysis and a network analysis. The outcome of the three analyses are used to create one statement on the innovative capacity of the system of water use in Ontario. Empirical data is collected by a document analysis and several interviews. The three context elements that explain something about the innovative capacity of the system of water use in Ontario are: the Education, the economic and human development and the geographic aspects. The system of water use in Ontario is decentralised, the municipalities have implementing powers to produce drinking, waste and storm water. The provincial ministry of Environment regulates the system. The municipalities are free to choose the operator private or public. For storm and wastewater there is cooperation with the Conservation authorities. The conservation authorities iii operate between the local and provincial level. The municipalities can use some fund from the provincial ministry of Public infrastructure renewal for the replacements or creation of water facilities. The knowledge organizations in Ontario are characterised by the divers mix of companies, universities and public research institutes. The knowledge organizations have due to this diverse mix also a diverse mix of knowledge. The innovation policy organizations are federal and provincial organized to stimulate the knowledge organizations. Only the Awwa Research Foundation (AwwaRF) and the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) are demanding specific knowledge from the knowledge organizations. The network organizations play a large role in Ontario for connecting organizations to each other. The innovative capacity of the system can be explained by the innovations created at the implementing organizations or the knowledge organizations and the stimulation of the water and innovation policy organizations of these innovations. The innovative capacity of the implementing organizations is relatively low because of its position. The implementing organizations are autonomous but have to meet regulation criteria. Innovative solutions have to prove that they meet the quality norms by delivering controlling data to the Ontarian Ministry of Environment (MOE). The smaller and medium municipalities don’t have financial resources or enough staff to do the research. This is the result of the water tax and the local political conservative influence. The two barriers identified in this system are related to this problem; the demand for innovations is low and the local political interference is high. This lacking demand is also the result of provincial policy, because of secotaralisation there is no provincial specific innovation policy for the system of water use. The positive influence on the innovative capacity comes from the larger and growing municipalities because they have more relations with knowledge organizations and are better able to allocate resources for innovation. Like the companies and universities are individuals important for the creation of the innovations. They sell their innovations to other organizations. This entrepreneurial spirit is the first driver. The large networks are recognized as second driver because they stimulate the exchange of knowledge. These networks are facilitated by the Innovation policy organizations and the network organizations. The large networks in Ontario relate organizations to each other and provide a basis for cooperation. An important aspect that is essential for all the organizations is the institutional infrastructure, the high developed education system provides a high develop workforce. This workforce makes it possible to be innovative. This research is based on qualitative research and giving a degree to the amount of innovative capacity is for that reason dangerous. Giving a summation of quantitative elements doesn’t make it a qualitative study. Without giving a number on a scale, the innovative capacity in the system of water use is described by the degree of innovative capacity. The degree of innovative capacity is medium to high. The knowledge stock, the knowledge infrastructure and the available knowledge organizations can facilitate a system with a high innovative capacity but the implementing organizations aren’t using the possibilities to it’s maximum. The reason that the municipalities aren’t as innovative as they could be lies in the local political conservatism, the water taxation and the lack of steering on innovations from the provincial government. The most important recommendations for the Ontarian government are to change the financial system and raise the implementing level to regional or above regional level. This will decrease the local political conservatism and increase the demand for innovations. The Dutch government can stimulate innovation in the system of water use by creation knowledge exchange between parts of the system, stimulating partnerships for research and prevent policies of implementing organizations that focus too much on price.