Is more growth always better?

Not according to a new paper from the Brookings Institution on Remaking Economic Development. Particularly when the pursuit of growth focuses more on incentive-driven initiatives than on workers and existing local businesses. 

The alternative vision of economic development laid out in the paper is a regional system of economic growth and development that involves a cross-section of elected officials, stakeholders, and economic developers. Its goal should be to drive robust long-term regional growth that raises standards of living for all.

In order to achieve this vision, economic development leaders must start with getting both the markets and the civics right. Industry clusters, according to the report, are the foundation of regional economies, and economic development should nurture strong business ecosystems that grow existing local businesses and sectors. On the civics front, economic development should focus on organizing local assets and stakeholders to implement strategies and achieve long-term goals.

Remaking Economic Development provides five principles for implementing this vision of economic development: setting the right goals and success metrics, growing from within by prioritizing emerging and established businesses and industries, boosting trade to encourage export growth, investing in people and skills, and connecting to place by focusing on solutions that are regional in scale.

From stagnant wages and lagging productivity to demographic and technological shifts, communities in the United States and around the world face economic challenges. The ability to innovate and adapt will be critical for future prosperity. While this report focuses on the American economic development context, it highlights the need for all practitioners to think more holistically about economic development (by prioritizing workforce development for example), to understand that place plays a key role in innovation, and to build collaborative relationships.

Will your job be automated?

New and emerging technology like robots and self-driving vehicles will fundamentally change the way in which we work, learn and live. As technology rapidly shifts at a pace not seen in human history, workforce automation has become a hot topic for workers, employers, and workforce or economic development practitioners alike. While there have been recent reports on the topic, a new paper by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Talented Mr. Robot: The Impact of Automation on Canada’s Workforce, looks specifically at the Canadian context. 

The report examines the impact of automation on the Canadian labour force, including looking at the occupations in Canada that are at high risk of becoming automated. Overall, the study found that close to 42% of the Canadian labour force is at a high risk of being automated within the next two decades. The specific occupations that are at the highest risk include retail salespersons, administrative assistants, food counter attendants, cashiers, and transport truck drivers.

It’s not all gloom and doom, though. The report highlighted that roughly 36% of the Canadian labour force is at a low risk of being automated. The specific occupations that are at the lowest risk include retail and wholesale managers, registered nurses, elementary and secondary school teachers, early childhood educators, and secondary school teachers.

Overall, the report’s findings suggest that in the next 10 to 20 years automation will occur most significantly in occupations that are administrative, routine, or oriented toward sales and service. The jobs least at risk appear to rely on humans’ cognitive advantage over technology and require more job-specific skills, complex problem solving, and people management and oversight. Check out the interactive visualization to find out more about the automation potential of occupations in Canada.  

Canada's looming ICT skills gap

Canada is facing growing demand for information and communications technology (ICT) workers as the economy is reshaped by new technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT); social, mobile, applications, analytics and cloud (SMAAC) technologies; automation; and additive manufacturing. The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) projects that the country will need 182,000 skilled ICT workers by 2019 and another 36,000 more by 2020. The challenge will be meeting this demand with an insufficient supply of domestic ICT graduates and workers.

In Digital Talent: Road to 2020 and Beyond, the ICTC makes seven recommendations to help industry and policy makers meet challenges around the ICT talent shortage and digital adoption. These range from strengthening digital literacy among Canadians to fostering digital entrepreneurship. Training and education, both youth education and worker upskilling, is a significant focus of the report. As is the need to engage women, youth, immigrants, Indigenous persons and persons with disabilities as pools of untapped talent. The seven recommendations are laid out in detail with examples of similar initiatives from around the world.

Technology adoption is key to Canada’s success in the digital economy. Increasing labour productivity by just 1% as a result of digital technology adoption could add $8 billion in value to Canada’s economy. There are benefits for individual businesses too. Tech-savvy small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grow their revenues more quickly and create twice as many new jobs as those that use less technology.

According to Digital Talent, Canada lags behind its international counterparts when it comes to digital adoption, in part because of a lack of skilled workers. As technological shifts drive ICT job and sector growth, Canada has an opportunity to become a leader in the global digital economy. But only if government, industry leaders, and educational institutions can ensure businesses have access to the talent they need.

How close is a zero-emissions economy?

In just a few decades the world could be powered by nothing but wind, water, and sunlight. Some have suggested that, with the right commitments and incentives in place, the transition to a completely zero-emission economy could happen in as little as 10 years. The United States, Mexico, and Canada, for example, recently announced that 50% of North America's electricity will come from clean power sources by 2025.

In an effort to create a global roadmap for this transition, Stanford University’s Atmosphere/Energy Program in collaboration with the University of California has created "energy roadmaps" for 139 countries to demonstrate that it's technically and economically feasible to change the energy infrastructure of these different countries by 2050. These roadmaps include how much energy each country would need by 2050 (including electricity, transportation, heating and cooling, industry, and agriculture) and calculate how renewable energy could cover those needs, where it could go, and how much it would cost.

Looking at the findings for Canada, the roadmap suggests that onshore and offshore wind production could account for roughly 56% of Canada’s renewable energy portfolio. Solar and hydroelectric would account for 18% and 17% respectively. Wave energy, geothermal, commercial/government rooftop solar, and residential rooftop solar each come in between 1.5% and 2%. In the decades of transition leading up to 2050, projections are that 290,716 construction jobs and 460,013 operations jobs could be created in Canada.

Adopting new forms of energy, however, can be a slow process. Let’s not forget that it took between 96 and 160 years for coal to be adopted as an energy source by most of Europe, and 47 to 69 years before electricity went mainstream. That being said, strong government support coupled with incentives to create a shift in consumer preferences are both proven strategies for accelerating the adoption of new energy forms.