Build Big Talent

Canada is on a mission to get its economy moving and growing again. From Parliament Hill to provincial capitals and centres of industry and innovation, Canadians are largely on the same page now: Faced with a suddenly unreliable America, it’s time to get our own economic house in order.

The Public Policy Forum (PPF)’s Mission Canada initiative is deep diving on key areas of the Canadian economy, providing how-to’s on unlocking growth and investment. The initiative includes a number of critical projects: earlier this year PPF launched a Build Big Things playbook with a focus on getting major energy, mining and infrastructure projects off the ground, and more playbooks will follow in other high-impact sectors.

But Canada cannot achieve growth without talent, and it certainly can’t grow when talent goes unmatched with the right skills at the right time and in the right places. In recent roundtables with leaders in industry, academia and government, we repeatedly heard concerns about retention of talent in key areas, and particularly that Canada would be hard pressed to kickstart 20 or more major projects due to a lack of skilled talent.

To achieve these ambitions, PPF is embarking on a suite of work called Build Big Talent — at its core, the project will argue that Canada needs to quickly turn its attention to strengthening a thriving and world-class university and research ecosystem, putting in place smart economic immigration practices and creating a Canada that is attractive to the people we need – all to unlock much-needed growth. Talent, brain health and performance are truly our greatest drivers of wealth and a huge source of capital in Canada — when we harness brain health and performance, we unleash creativity and create greater prosperity.

Over the coming weeks as PPF launches Build Big Talent, we will be reaching out to experts and those with important ideas across the country to kickstart a national conversation about how Canada can grow its competitiveness by harnessing and supporting our greatest asset.

Please be in touch with Riaz Kara, VP Policy, at rkara@ppforum.ca or Jay Khosla, Executive Director of Economic and Energy Policy, at jkhosla@ppforum.ca if you would like to be involved in the project as a sponsor, PPF member or engaged Canadian.

We hope you’ll join us!

Inez Jabalpurwala, President and CEO, Public Policy Forum