Is it time to dust off the ol' "Living Lab" moniker?

There is a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute finds that Canadian students’ scores in reading, mathematics, and science have been consistently slipping since initial benchmarking in the early 2000s. New Brunswick scores last in two of the three categories among Canadian provinces and 2nd last on the third. You will see that New Brunswick has gotten worse on all three indicators since 2018.

We have been talking a lot lately (and actually for many years) about ‘innovation’ and how to define it and how to foster it in the province.

For years I have been saying a small province like New Brunswick should be ideally positioned for ‘pilot projects’. I would apply this concept broadly across all areas of endeavour. In theory, this should be easier in a small province with relatively few layers of control.

Instead of trying to hoist wholesale a massive change on the entire education system why not pick a few schools and try stuff?

They say Finland’s education performance is high because the teachers all have advanced degrees and are paid really well. OK. Why not pick a few schools in New Brunswick, hire only those with masters degrees and pay them $130k/year. Wait five years, see what happens. What do you have to lose?

Some places are experimenting with longer school days or different use of technology or blending in-person and virtual instruction. A few years ago when my kids were in high school some parents were grumbling because their ‘genius’ kids were bored. Why not have a UNB professor teach them advanced calculus three days a week virtually? Some schools are specializing (e.g. trades, arts, STEM, etc.) again. Something like Sistema is a kind of pilot project.

How about school uniforms? That might not go over well.

I sat in a couple of meetings where they were considering some interesting stuff in Sackville with the high school and Mount Allison. Not sure where that ended up.

Don’t take my examples literally. You would still need someone like Chris Treadwell advising you. The point is that instead of studying system wide models for years and then implementing some massive change, try stuff out. Experiment.

This applies to health care, too. Payment models, delivery models, technology - experiment (not literally on patients) - try stuff.

If something works well in the pilot then you consider rolling it out widely.

This should apply to public services and, yes, even economic development. Why not look at specific ‘zones’ and treat them differently to see what might happen? Why not do some highly targeted tax incentives and test to see efficacy before rolling something out widely? Why not have municipal governments get into a pilot project mindset?

Of course, even with pilot projects you need willing participants. I am still puzzling over the Siemens experiment.

When Siemens first set up in New Brunswick they liked the idea of a single electricity utility to work with on smart grid development. The company landed here in 2016 and I sat through a presentation at the time that was impressive - New Brunswick would lead the world in smart grid application development and use. We would build technologies here that would be sold around the world. It would become a major growth sector with thousand of high paying jobs.

That’s nine years ago.

I know there are a few things happening and I did recently get my smart meter but, really, nine years?

So there are two lessons here. One, if you do pilot projects -take them seriously and give them time to work (although nine years may be a little much). Two, accept that some (many) will fail. It could turn out that paying $130k per year for a high school teacher doesn’t make up for other systemic issues. Three, if things do work, be prepared to adopt them.

In the 1990s someone called New Brunswick the ‘living lab’. This was aligned with NBTel at the time but it was kind of a fun moniker.

It would be nice, circa 2025, to dust that off and start to live it.