Innovation is the key word for the upcoming federal budget according to industry watchdogs.
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Innovation budget for Canada, the time has come

Innovation is one of those buzz words these days, and your reaction to it may depend which side of it you’re on; are you the employee being hired, or the employee who is now redundant?

“Historically we’ve seen new jobs created by technology almost at the same rate, if not faster, than jobs being replaced.”

Innovations in robotic technology and the loss of jobs have been in the Canadian spotlight of late, but Sean Mullin, executive director of the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreunership, says while there is cause for concern, “historically we’ve seen new jobs created by technology almost at the same rate, if not faster, than jobs being replaced.”

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This is why he, and many others, are anticipating the federal government’s new budget to be released March 22nd. It is being touted as an “innovation budget” but as always, the devil is in the details.

Sean Mullin says when it comes to technology and innovation Canada tends to punch below it’s weight:

“We actually have world-leading areas of expertise in artificial intelligence in Montreal, around the Universite de Montreal, in Toronto, around the University of Toronto, and in Edmonton around the University of Alberta, and all three of those areas are not just Canadian leaders but global leaders so I think that’s a great example of where we need to build on those strengths.”

Sean Mullin was at the sold-out B.C. Tech Summit this week, one of over 5,000 attendees, including Julia White, Corporate V.P. from Microsoft, and J. B. Straubel, the co-founder of Tesla.

The conference was the occasion for Techstars, to make it official, the global incubator and accelerator program is expanding to Canada. The company that helped Uber get its start is setting up in Toronto, to capitalize on the opportunities in the Waterloo-Kitchener tech corridor.

Mullin says what’s most important is to start the debate about the impact of technology in the workplace in order to be able to plan for the needs.

“We… put out a report last year that looked at the impact of robots, automation, artificial intelligence, sophisticated software and the potential impact those developments may have on jobs over the next 10 to 15 years, and we were able to find that almost 42 per cent of Canada’s existing workforce is at a high risk of potentially being replaced by this technology.”

Mullin says it’s not really about a workforce 42 per cent smaller in twenty years, it’s about preparing today’s students to become the future workforce, with a focus on skills.

This can be challenging in a vast country like Canada with competing jurisdictions and the provincial control over education.  A common vision, however, is developing.

He says, “trends across provinces now about increased focus on digitial literacy, on coding skills, on problem solvings with technology” are positive signs, much of it being led by the Business Council of Canada and  the Higher Education Round Table.

The greater need now for both employers and students, is for more work-integrated learning, in which educational experience is combined with on-the-job training.

Mullin is optimistic. “As Canadians we can figure this out and get this right.”

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