Build Big Talent

About the project

While recent months have rightly seen a lot of attention paid to what Canada needs to do to boost its productivity and economic growth, conversations have mostly focused on the end deliverables. To deliver on Mission Canada — the Public Policy Forum’s new blueprint for Canada’s inclusive economic growth agenda — and the recommendations made in our recent reports Build Big Things (on accelerating investment in energy, mining and infrastructure projects) and Canada’s Code Red (on building an economy-boosting life sciences sector), Canada must develop a workforce with the right skills, in the right place and at the right time.

Under Mission Canada, PPF’s Build Big Talent is a horizontal exploration of what this can look like in practice. The project aims to do this through the delivery of a series of complementary workstreams, each with distinct outputs, brought together under one common program. This creates a blueprint for a pan-Canadian Talent Strategy. 

The five workstreams are: 

1. Bolstering technical skills for the economy 

An exploration of how well current skills and training offerings respond to the applied technical and technological skill requirements to fulfil Canada’s economic agenda, linked closely to PPF’s Build Big Things. Activity will include an exploration of how well understood the people needs of business are — including by the private sector themselves — and opportunities to strengthen linkages between the private, public and educational sectors. 

2. Attracting, retaining and maximizing global talent 

An assessment of the success of Canada’s skill strategy and the short-, medium- and long-term targets for a balance of immigration vis-a-vis homegrown talent in filling Canada’s skills gaps. The differing requirements of Canada’s provinces and territories will be considered within this. Activity will also include a consideration of how we maximize the skills of immigrants already in Canada and how we arrest — and reverse — the flight of Canadian talent to the U.S. and leverage opportunities for U.S. talent to come to Canada. 

3. Building out Canada’s innovation eco-system 

Canada outperforms much of the world in its research and development activity. However, this country underperforms when it comes to translating this to commercial activities and the subsequent generation and retention of national wealth. For an innovation ecosystem to be truly successful, it must include infrastructure and support for the creation of entrepreneurs and the ability to move from start-up to scale-up activities. This activity will consider what needs to happen to build on Canada’s existing strengths in innovation to ensure we have the expertise and infrastructure to capitalize on this comparative advantage. 

4. Developing and utilizing Canada’s brain capital 

An exploration of the link between brain capital and economic and personal success, and identification of policies required to bolster brain performance. With an evolving jobs market, there is an increasing focus in recruitment on human skills (e.g., critical thinking, reasoning, discernment and resilience) to complement the occupational or knowledge-based skills that may be required. A focus on brain capital — brain health plus brain skills — focuses on the importance of increasing these skills via enhanced brain performance to enable success in dynamic and ever-evolving work environments. 

5. Preparing a workforce for the jobs of the future 

If Canada is to be successful in its long-term ambitions, then a skills strategy must focus on where the puck is going. The World Economic Forum estimates that 65 percent of children entering elementary school today will work a job that doesn’t exist today. Developments in AI and quantum computing, the emergence of green technologies and the introduction of new digital technologies all underline the need to develop a focus on future skills development and the need to have an education system that is adaptable enough to do this. With implications for the educational offerings starting from early years and running right through to retraining and upskilling employees in sunset industries, this workstream will explore how we develop an education system (from primary to tertiary and beyond) that has the flexibility to respond to the changing demands of the world of work. 

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