Outcomes of Québec-Ontario Joint Meeting of Cabinet Ministers
October 21, 2016 2:50 P.M.
At a joint meeting today in Toronto, the Ontario and Québec cabinets achieved progress in key areas to strengthen the provinces’ partnership to build up Central Canada’s economy, create jobs and improve people’s everyday lives.
Innovation
Québec and Ontario have agreed to jointly support investment in ultra-high speed communications infrastructure to help develop the 5G network — the next generation of digital communication technology. The meeting laid the groundwork for future collaboration on digital infrastructure.
The provinces plan to create an open innovation ecosystem to accelerate the growth of information and communications technology (ICT) and sectors that use these technologies. Québec and Ontario will work together with consortia of leading technology organizations on projects to help realize the shared vision, including:
- ENCQOR (Evolution of Networked Services through a Corridor in Québec and Ontario for Research and Innovation): Global ICT companies including Ciena, Ericsson, Thales, IBM and CGI would allow small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) access to pre-commercial technologies to establish a global leadership position in 5G
- CENGN (Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks): a not-for-profit organization focused on the commercialization of next generation communications solutions. It is a consortium of industry, academic and research leaders, including Cisco, EWA, EXFO, Fujitsu, Juniper, Nokia, Rogers, Telus, Viavi, WindRiver and Zayo. Its mission is to bridge the gap between research and commercialization, including by providing testbed infrastructure for SMEs, government and academia. Participating companies include CENX, Corsa, InBay Technologies and AP1.
Together, these actions will enable Central Canada to build the backbone of digital infrastructure in order to accelerate the development and adoption of transformative technologies.