Canada

Past Event

If skills are the new currency of the 21st century, we need to clarify the terms of exchange. Competency frameworks are critical to reducing friction in the skills and employment ecosystem by providing more clarity on how we define, assess, develop and utilize skills. Join the authors of a new Skills Next report and our esteemed panelists on Nov. 13.

COVID-19 has made it clear that Canada needs a strong domestic manufacturing sector to produce what it needs. Industrial production has been stagnant in the country for two decades and it’s a must for Canada to create and sustain a resilient manufacturing economy that will also be more competitive in a globalized economy and that will create good jobs while minimizing environmental impacts.

This paper outlines places where technology can or is providing innovative approaches to skills training. This includes the assessment of skills, development of skills, and the alignment of supply and demand — including advancing bias-free recruitment. With real-world examples from around the world, it also reviews how technology can improve access, diversity and workplace inclusivity amongst equity-seeking groups.

Our institutions must build uncertainty into policy-making and program design. This “uncertainty screen” will help ensure a vision of the future that reflects today’s uniquely complex environment.

Relations with the United States have been challenging for Canada in recent years. It’s become clear that Canada needs to move beyond its traditional trade-of-goods narrative with the U.S. and focus on factors that will be most important for its diplomatic assets in the coming years, namely culture and technology.

Little did Alberta Health Services' Digital Experience team know this moment would shift the province’s whole pandemic strategy, and become the core of Alberta’s COVID response. Their assessment tool with online booking and results would get attention from across North America, and spark a form of collaboration that would cast lasting doubt on the way things have always been done.

Past Event

Tech-Enabled Innovations in the Skills and Employment Ecosystem | Skills Next

The pandemic is a financial crisis like none in recent years and governments now face the challenge of promoting economic growth and investment and getting people back to work, while also protecting the vulnerable and addressing ballooning debt and deficits. It’s time to use a scalpel, rather than a sledgehammer, to reduce spending by reconsidering the size and compensation levels in the public sector, reviewing the defined benefit pension programs and restructuring where possible.

COVID-19 has taken a high toll on film and television in Canada. To support a once-thriving industry, governments need to improve financial security for production companies and ensure a steady flow of business across the Canada-US border. Governments must also modernize regulations for industry success in the digital age.

No one strikes out to claim the middle ground and yet that may very well be the most prudent strategy for a balanced economic recovery. There is a path for Canada between unnecessary fiscal restraint that stymies growth and excessive large-scale spending.

Canada’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for more than 90% of private-sector jobs in Canada. To be competitive in today’s market, they need the right people with the right skills, yet they are disproportionately threatened by labour shortages and skills gaps - a situation made worse by COVID-19. Unlike large corporations, SMEs possess limited resources, making it exponentially more challenging to support these human resources needs. There is a dire need for innovative research & solutions.

Canada’s relationship has deteriorated since Canada arrested Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou and China retaliated by arresting Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. The Trudeau government has weighed the costs of human rights advocacy from an increasingly repressive China against commercial interest with the world’s second-biggest economy. It’s led to a stalemate of sorts, but there are some actions Canada could take.

Past Event

The COVID-19 crisis is having a devastating impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), charities, and not-for-profit organizations in Ontario. SMEs are the backbone of the Canadian economy, accounting for more than 90% of jobs in the private sector. Yet they face critical labour shortages, skill gaps and challenges related to access to broadband that threaten their competitiveness.

As a presidential election looms in the United States, Canada is facing three possible scenarios for its outcome. Trade with the U.S. remains largely as healthy as it was 30 years ago, but that could change as the country’s neighbour to the south looks inward. To combat this, Canada must continue to diversify while also trading south.

Where seasonal work is more common, what kind of EI reform would both protect workers and help create prosperous local labour markets? This paper explores six options focused on Atlantic Canada, arguing that widespread use of EI by seasonal workers makes it seem there's more unemployed workers than is really the case – a distortion that negatively impacts the economic potential of the region.