Canada

Action is needed to alleviate gender barriers: Good intentions are no longer enough. Despite efforts to improve diversity in the workplace, gender inequality remains both an issue of social justice and an equally compelling economic priority. Yet efforts to advance women’s economic inclusion continue to be hampered by the lack of access to information. This report summarizes existing research and prevailing issues surrounding gender inequality, including those exacerbated by COVID-19, and points to further research that needs to be done on initiatives to reduce gender inequalities.

The COVID-19 crisis has derailed the careers of millions of Canadians. To support them, workforce leaders, and policy and decision makers need to mobilize education and training systems in some key ways – starting with robust labour market information and laying the foundation for a national system of lifelong learning.

Six months after the release of New North Star II, the case for a mission-driven economic strategy is even more relevant. The pandemic has highlighted the need for a new industrial strategy to cultivate domestic innovations and technologies in Canada's national interests and authors Robert Asselin and Sean Speer revisit their analysis and recommendations and find a compelling model in the US’s DARPA model.

Canada must come to grips not just with a massive fiscal shortfall but also consecutive deficits in our current account, a broad measure of our trading and investment relationship with the rest of the world. A government plan must be growth oriented if we are to get the twin deficits under control without resorting to the drastic measures of 25 years ago.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a fiscal conundrum for governments: How can they dig themselves out of debt in a manner that protects the financial futures of younger generations? Governments should opt for a mix of fiscal strategies that favour smart tax increases.

As a starting point for further dialogue, lawyer Lex Gill explores the legal tensions and policy questions that have historically animated debates surrounding hate speech in Canada. This report summarizes some of the most significant recent developments, in particular the ways technological, economic and social change have begun to challenge the ways we think about harmful expression.

Today’s media systems include the powerful social media companies that watch, commodify, and manipulate us as they buy and sell our data. Mike Ananny urges a more sophisticated understanding of the privately controlled infrastructures where important decisions are made shaping behaviours, beliefs and online news. These might look like boring, messy, technical places where only engineers work, but regulators need to grasp their complexities and tackle the prevailing secrecy to better protect the public interest.

By drawing parallels to elections, climate change and the anti-vaccination movement, author Christopher Dornan illustrates how disinformation about COVID-19 can pose significant risks for public health, social cohesion and collective trust. Dornan identifies several useful recommendations for citizens, governments and social media platforms to consider to effectively combat disinformation and engage in evidence-based discussion about scientific findings.

By shifting its policies on technology procurement and embracing a more collaborative development approach with Canadian innovators; government could also enable Canada’s technology sector to compete more successfully in global markets.

With COVID-19 raging out of control in the U.S., the last thing most Canadians want to contemplate is more entrants from abroad. But it could be a year before a vaccine arrives and much longer until it is administered globally. If COVID has taught us anything it is that, this time, we have to be ahead of the curve on border control.

Rebuilding the economy will require a sustained, thoughtful approach. Key to that approach will be improving both the quantity and quality of work to repair fractures and avoid disruption from future waves of infection.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated developing geopolitical shifts that are unlikely to dissipate even after the pandemic's economic shock wanes. As a country long used to a more benign international environment, the future prosperity, security and well-being of Canadians will depend in no small measure on how well we navigate this unfamiliar world.

Before the COVID-19 crisis hit, there was already a need for public policy in Canada to adjust. Now, with the economy wounded and international cooperation frayed, we must consider the merits of a more fundamental rebuilding job. Through a series of reports and conferences, this project will tap into the best established and ascending policy brains in an effort to help policymakers weigh priorities and trade-offs and forge a far-reaching rebuild plan.

Gig work & gig workers are on the rise, fuelled by technology that makes this form of work more easily accessible. What does this mean for Canada’s labour market and how should we respond? Understanding how workers enter, navigate and experience the gig economy is a critical component to better understanding what policies are required to best protect and support them. This report explores what we know, and what we need to know, about the nature of Canada’s gig economy and the experiences of its workers.