Contributed to the Toronto Star by Benjie Thomas
There has been much hand wringing in recent years over Canada’s productivity gap. The blame for this can be shared by many factors in our economy — from government policy to overly cautious business strategies to restrictive regulatory bodies to small market size.
But the main driver has been complacency. As long as we had unfettered access to the world’s largest economy and a weak Loonie, it was tough to make the business case for investments to modernize government and business operations, upgrade our key ports and transportation networks, or eliminate excessive red tape and barriers to national commerce.
The imposition of U.S. tariffs means that access now comes with a steep price of admission — and that should make improving productivity a top priority for all players in our economy. Encouragingly, we saw many Canadian organizations step up their technology investments over the last two years — even outpacing the spend of their global counterparts. And these investments have produced significant improvements, making the business case for even more.
We just finished talking to 250 owners and CEOs of Canadian companies across the country and across a wide spectrum of industries. The vast majority of these leaders acknowledge that they must be bolder and further ramp up their investments in technology and innovation.
However, six in 10 also say the trade war is making it increasingly difficult to find the capital to invest in the “kind of technologies” that would improve productivity.
Many companies have already seen a hit to their bottom lines, and this extended period of economic uncertainty has made it nearly impossible to forecast future sales and revenue — and with it, the money to invest in new technology.
Therein lies the Canadian challenge — we need to invest to make our businesses and economy more productive and competitive, but the current climate is choking off revenue. Companies are hesitant to make investment commitments when the economic climate is so uncertain and fraught with risk.
For many countries, the options to combat this might be limited. Fortunately for Canada, they aren’t. We are blessed with the natural resources the world needs. We have one of the world’s most educated workforces and have a political stability that is the envy of the world.
In the recent throne speech, King Charles said in this fast-evolving world, “Canada is ready to lead” and has as an “opportunity to think bigger and better … to embark on the largest transformation of its economy since the Second World War.”
Delivering on this opportunity will take courage to be bold and capitalize on our advantages. We need to be intentional in setting our own future. This means shedding the Canadian tendency to opt for caution over ambition, competing for winning.
To be bold, means to think big — an economic reset cannot be done with small incremental changes. Canada can no longer afford to be a follower. We need to set the trend. We need to believe in our strengths and adopt a winning ambition.
In the throne speech, the federal government laid out a bold, leadership vision for Canada, stating that its “overarching goal — its core mission — is to build the strongest economy in the G7.”
Not long ago, most Canadians would have smiled at that statement and passed it off as political bluster. However, the last six months have galvanized a belief and commitment in Canadians that winning is possible.
For the first time in memory — and maybe ever — simply being Canadian in Canada is a real advantage. So far, Canadian consumers continue to favour Canadian owned and made products over American ones. In fact, almost eight in 10 of the business leaders we spoke to said that the “Buy Canada” movement has helped boost their sales, and nearly nine in 10 say it’s prompted their company to look at Canada as a growth market.
But it is not good enough to simply just wave the flag, Canadian companies need to embrace their customers and focus on building better, innovative and cost-effective products and services.
In our quest to be bold we need to embrace the power of responsible artificial intelligence. AI offers us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to boost Canadian prosperity and advance our competitive position.
Canada was a pioneer in the space — we built institutes, funded researchers and developed talent. But our cautious mindset hasn’t capitalized on our advantages in AI. We let the talent leave and didn’t embrace AI into our business and government operations.
Done right, AI can safely and efficiently accelerate the planning, construction and operations of new energy infrastructure projects — and support a whole host of other industries. These projects hold the key to building the prosperous and sustainable Canada we need.
AI can also drive the needed efficiencies in government operations that will help business operate faster and smarter — while cutting the costs of running government.
To deliver, Canadians need to take lead in writing the rules of operation — to establish the governance mechanisms and frameworks that can boost transparency and security. And in a world that is advancing lightning fast, if we don’t make the decision to lead, we will be doomed to perpetually follow.
We have long had the people and the natural resources to be a world leader — thanks to a changing global order, we now also have the ambition.
