Economy

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.

The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the need to reform Canada’s income-support framework. Combine this with the looming risks of automation and age-related labour shortages, and we have a strong case for creating a modern framework that promotes work and minimizes earning losses for dislocated workers. As we rebuild our economy following the crisis, Canadian policy-makers will need to grapple with this complex and critical task.

When COVID-19 lockdowns came, Canada’s employment insurance system failed to cover enough of the Canadian workforce that was affected and failed administratively to keep up with the surge in applications for benefits. This new report by Jennifer Robson proposes ideas for policy reform and shows why Canadians need wage insurance in the first place.

The country has been held back by lagging productivity and competitiveness, leading to a stagnant growth rate incapable of lifting Canadians’ standards of living. As we rebuild, simply going back to ‘normal’ is not an option.

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.

How can Canada use its highly skilled workforce as we transition to a knowledge economy? In their new report, AJ Tibando and Arvind Gupta explore Palette Inc., a not-for-profit platform that was created to upskill diverse and non-traditional workers in an ICT sector biased against hiring them. It looks like the Palette model is working.

Artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, the sharing economy and other emerging technologies were expected to upend the nature of how people work, eliminate an array of routine and repetitive tasks, and put pressure on social support frameworks designed for a different era. These impacts expected to be felt in the near to medium term suddenly find themselves present. The need to reinvent Canada's social and economic policy frameworks has a newfound urgency.

An urban-rural scan of potential long-term effects of the future of work shows the negative effects of a displaced workforce will be felt disproportionately among rural residents, who make up the majority of high-risk employment sectors that will succumb to technology-induced disruption. Understanding how these changes could affect urban centres vs. rural areas is a crucial ingredient to long-term policymaking and key to creating an effective place-based policy agenda for Canada to manage those disruptions and keep an urban-rural economic divide that already exists from growing

Explore the findings of PPF regional consultations in Atlantic Canada in a province-specific report on employers and communities experiences with skills and labour shortages in context to key provincial factors.

Intangibles are the new basis for competition, and the U.S.-China tech “cold war” is changing assumptions about global commerce and geopolitics. Authors Sean Speer, Robert Asselin and Royce Mendes make the case for a bold policy response to adapt to these geo-economic trends: a challenge-driven industrial strategy that will give Canada a competitive edge as it rebuilds post COVID-19.

Past Event

How does Atlantic Canada need to pivot priorities for regional economic growth and immigration for post-pandemic prosperity? Atlantic Summit 2020 brings together leaders in policy development, government, business, education and social services for a forward-looking exploration of what it will take to confront old challenges compounded by new crisis.

In a message to the PPF community, our President & CEO Edward Greenspon addresses how PPF is re-calibrating and conceiving of new forms of digital engagement.