What happens to people in the age of AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) and related emerging technologies will drastically change our society over the next couple of decades. Not only will automated systems soon take over jobs such as truck driving and manufacturing, they will eventually disrupt employment everywhere else, too. The current headlong rush to automate will create some employment in selected sectors, such […]
Here are the building blocks of a good digital strategy
Canada’s future competitiveness and growth prospects are inextricably linked to our ability to seize the opportunities created by the rapidly evolving digital economy. Evolving digital technologies create an opportunity for new products, technologies, services, business processes, societal tools, and organizations to generate new wealth, but they also challenge the existing system of production and our […]
How Canada is building a nation of innovators
The winds of change are powerful and persistent in the global economy. New technologies and new applications of data and digital tools are driving a fourth industrial revolution in economies and societies around the world. We can either put our heads in the sand and lose our opportunity for leadership, or we can take charge […]
We’ve got all the ingredients to make Canada an innovation leader. So why aren’t we?
If a Canadian innovates but no users benefit, did the innovation ever really happen? This “tree falling in the woods” analogy focuses on an important question: if we cannot reliably generate social benefits and economic opportunities (jobs and wealth, in other words) from our exceptional research capacity, are we putting our future investments in discovery […]
Innovation
For rural and remote communities, broadband access is not a game
Over the last decade, Canadians from coast to coast to coast have decried consecutive governments for not doing enough to support rural and remote broadband access. Canadians in these communities should have access to broadband supports—it’s 2019, after all. There are a whole host of reasons given that not every Canadian has access to affordable […]
Canada’s economy needs workers with global learning experiences
In a column published recently in The Hill Times, Perrin Beatty and Paul Davidson argued that Canada has to up its game when it comes to connecting post-secondary students with international learning experiences. “In our rapidly changing world,” they wrote, “Canadian employers need workers who are culturally aware, resilient, and adaptable—skilled in problem solving, communication, […]
Critics decry new minister as election ploy, say Liberals dropping ball on rural internet access
Shifting responsibility for getting better internet connectivity in rural areas to a new cabinet minister may just be a “smoke screen” for the Liberals dropping the ball on the file and other rural issues, say opposition MPs. But Liberals and stakeholders say there’s time for real progress on broadband and other rural files before the […]
Privacy watchdog calls for ‘incremental’ approach to digitizing government services
As the federal government looks to digitize Canadians’ access to government services, the privacy commissioner says that it should take an “incremental” approach, arguing that its experience with the problem-plagued Phoenix pay system speaks to the pitfalls of cutting corners to save time and money. “[That experience] speaks to the need to implement this incrementally,” […]
Innovation minister, Finance Committee chair, member top most-lobbied MPs of 2018
A committee chair, a minister, and a backbencher were 2018’s top-lobbied MPs, according to a Hill Times analysis that observers said made sense given the Parliamentarians’ close contact with budget planning and the Liberals’ much-touted innovation mandate. Chair of the House Finance Committee Wayne Easter notched 182 mentions in communications reports from registered lobbyists, followed […]
