October 26, 2018 - Edmonton, Alberta

Summary Notes - Western Canada Growth Strategy Roundtable Discussion
Alberta Prairie Room, 15th Floor, 9700 Jasper Ave., Canada Place
Edmonton, Alberta
Friday, October 26, 2018
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

These notes are intended to provide an overview of roundtable discussion, and do not imply consensus or agreement on the topics discussed amongst participants.

Participants:

• Brent Francis, Director, Advocacy and Outreach, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce
• Michele Evans, Assistant Deputy Minister, Alberta Economic Development and Trade
• Kathy Kimpton, President and CEO, Women Building Futures
• Dr. Robert Murray, A/CEO, Edmonton Global
• Lori Schmidt, CEO, GO Productivity
• Kenya Kondo, Director, Industry Development, Alberta Enterprise Corporation
• Chris LaBossiere, Co-CEO, Yardstick Software
• Alexis Ksiazkiewicz, Associate Vice-President, Government and Community Relations, University of Alberta

Q1) What does a stronger western Canadian economy look like 10 years from now?

Trends taking place: slower gross domestic product (GDP) growth, significant social change, aging population and infrastructure, evolving technology, data security, and sustainable innovation.

Economic strategy and integration:

• A harmonized and integrated western Canadian approach is required – needs to be depoliticized and not subject to political cycles. A coordinated message/story/branding amongst governments to communicate to outsiders is necessary.
• We are in a large geographic area with small populations.
• Need to recognize the importance of our infrastructure and its value to move people, ideas, and products. This needs to be aligned with our clients, investors, and communities.
• We will be a knowledge economy, and good at attracting people who want to live here as a lifestyle choice.
• We can be a high-investment zone. Certainty is required for big investment decisions (e.g. – electricity rates), as we are asking investors to be here for a long time.
• Entrepreneurs need better access to capital. We need to think bigger; local companies tend to see Alberta as their only market. There is a need to help start-ups gain access to larger market opportunities.

Economic diversification:

• Natural resources need to be optimized, including within the oil and gas sector (upgrading facilities, pipelines). Value-added in the energy sector should be a forethought, not an afterthought.
• Investors have a skeptical eye on us due to pipeline approval issues.
• There is great potential for value-added agriculture.
• We need greater access to markets outside the United States,such as exporting internationally and to other Canadian provinces. There is a need to get rid of inter-provincial trade barriers.

Technology and innovation:

• Sometimes investors will buy our idea, but move it elsewhere.
• It is important that companies have access to the tools to enable them to grow. Whether a company stays within Alberta or locates elsewhere, the province gains as we collectively grow our network and build bridges back to Alberta.
• The Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative can be an opportunity to increase the amount of support for founders across Canada.
• We can be conservative, unsophisticated and uncompetitive, using the same approaches from 50 years ago.
• New platform models – we must fully adopt global technology shifts, such as digitization and artificial intelligence. These technologies can also be applied to our energy sector.
• Disruptive technologies will not be limited by sector.
• Technology investment is geographically agnostic.
• Sustainability will underpin all activities.
• We do not know if oil will be a meaningful commodity in the future, but regardless, we need to shift to a knowledge-based economy, or risk being behind the eight-ball.
• Our regulatory system needs to adapt to a fast-paced world.

Workforce:

• We need a more inclusive and highly skilled workforce, and to close the income gap. The need for skilled workers is not going away, and we will see gaps 5-10 years out. We can tap into these underrepresented labour pools now to serve future demand. Preparing future workers takes time.
  • Large populations of women are under-employed.
  • There is a lot of room for greater workforce participation by marginalized populations in Alberta.
• Government, industry, and post-secondaries must work together.
• Support a culture of entrepreneurship and work-integrated learning as well.
• Citizens need to invest in themselves.
• A completely new workforce will be required, with new competencies and skills requirements. Gaps are already there.
• We create great plant engineers, but not plant managers. These people move elsewhere for better opportunities.
• There are shortages of product and business development skills at an executive level. It is difficult to compete internationally because we do not have access to the talent required.
  • Higher taxation is a disincentive for high-earning workers. Rules around compensation and stocks (restricted stock units versus stock) can be punitive.

Indigenous communities:

• We need to support greater economic activity in Indigenous communities.

Q2) What are the best ways to spur new growth in western Canada?

Economic strategy:

• Need to focus on longer-term, less political decision making (comment repeated by many participants).
  • Need focus on infrastructure maintenance, not just on announcements for new things.
• Our strategies move too slowly.
• We cannot be everything to everyone. Data sharing, aligning strategic plans around sectoral and industry needs are necessary.
• One pipeline will not solve our problems. The role of always having well-paid energy sector jobs will change, and perceptions around this need to change. Oil and gas companies dependent on boom times are not the way to go.

Federal Supercluster initiative:

• We were all upset when not much was coming to Alberta; however, they were trying to make investments that they felt were strategic. It is not about fairness.

Trade:

• Address inter-provincial trade barriers.
• Help businesses consider customers outside of Alberta.

Collaboration:

• Collaboration and harmonization are key (echoed by many participants), including intergovernmental. We have too many silos.
• We are great at being creators (e.g. – we have strengths in artificial intelligence), but we need to be better at leveraging and taking advantage of the innovation ecosystem.

Post-secondaries:

• It would be great to see post-secondaries operate as economic development entities.
• Post-secondaries need to be more sensitive in preparing learners. Need to integrate work and learning together.

Procurement policy:

• Government can spur ideas, innovation, and set standards through procurement. There are so many programs and grants, but they are not impactful in helping big ideas to grow. Procurement can provide transformative opportunities for local businesses, and create platform ideas.
  • A few companies are constantly chosen for government procurement opportunities.
  • Most local companies have stopped trying to sell to government because it is so difficult.
  • For example, with Phoenix, a local company could scale up to solve this problem. Instead, a foreign company will be chosen.

Technology and innovation:

• Government can support early-stage technology commercialization. We need to be better at scaling up. Government can also support platform technological development.
  • There is a place and time for government to set the foundation, and then step out.
• In the future, we will all be software companies eventually.
•  Eastern Canada has led the growth of Canada’s tech sector which benefits Canada’s tech brand tremendously. It would be great to see more support for tech sectors in the smaller regions.
• For tech entrepreneurs, what is needed is better access to capital, markets and talent (technical talent, operational talent for sales and growth, and senior level executives with experience in the tech space). It is not a case of one of the other. All three form the core foundation for the base upon which Alberta’s tech sector can sustainably grow.
• Tech can be a great enabler for broader economic participation of various groups in Alberta’s future and economic growth. However, tech is not the only solution and should not be seen as the silver bullet.
• Need coordination of government incentives/programs.
• There is a shift from governments to multi-nationals influencing policy.
• Government should champion large-scale investments.

Indigenous communities:

• More flexibility is needed to develop partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations.

Q3) What will help the Indigenous economy continue to grow?

Considerations:

• There is a need to understand the underlying conditions of the communities. We are all starting from different places. We need to be sensitive to differing needs, and not make assumptions on what it required.
• It is a complex issue with no one answer.
• One challenge is on-reserve jurisdictional issues, but we are getting better at navigating it.
• Value sets of upon which economic activity is centered can be different culturally. How we view success can be different. Communities do not care about key performance indicators – we need to recalibrate our measures of success.

Partnerships:

• We need to foster partnerships with Indigenous communities and support the communities we serve. This includes supporting organizations that work with Indigenous communities, even if the organization itself is not an Indigenous organization. These groups sometimes cannot access funding.
• Need to facilitate connections between Indigenous sellers and buyers.

Education:

• No one is talking about Indigenous leadership development. Not just workforce development, but leadership as well.
• Focusing on youth is an overall opportunity to engagement in new and flexible ways.
• We need to work together to close the education gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. There is no one size fits all.
• There was a study to explore what factors supported Indigenous students in staying in post-secondary. The results indicated that a combination of everything together forming a sense of belonging enabled Indigenous students to stay in post-secondary training. The University of Victoria has done a good job centralizing Indigenous educational services together in one place and Indigenous enrollment has increased.

Connectivity:

• Internet connectivity is critical to communities. Different types of learning options help too. The systems and cultural parameters are not always the same across communities.

Procurement policy:

• We need the ability to build and show models where industry can partner with Indigenous communities. Some businesses have become quite good at it, but they really needed to understand it well. This is challenging in a knowledge economy business. A lot needs to be done first from a social point of view.

Entrepreneurship:

• It is not my right to answer, but I asked some of our Indigenous stakeholders. The biggest issue was access to capital for Indigenous entrepreneurs. Having more money for grassroots businesses that know how to serve their own community would be great.  For example, we are seeing the Enoch-Cree Industrial Park.

Q4) How can we improve economic participation in the west of under-represented groups, including women, youth, and new immigrants?

Considerations:

• There is unconscious bias and it is challenging to acknowledge things we do not see. There are also perceptions that if you do not fit a certain mold then you are less than.
• As a first step, we need to have a comprehensive systemic look at what is limiting. How are we incentivizing or dis-incentivizing workforce participation? (e.g. – pay gaps or parental leave). This involves solving deeper cultural problems.
  • Government needs to work with industry and other groups to address this.

Workforce:

• We focus on hard skills and foreign qualifications, but not on soft skills. Both businesses and new workers need to understand business standards, for example, such as around punctuality.
• There are opportunities to move more locally trained foreign students into the local workforce.
• Canadian productivity is pitiful, and we are not getting better at improving participation of underrepresented groups in the workforce.
• Nudge systems can help change employer perceptions, like tax credits that provide a bit more of a top-up if employers have diversity policies in place.

Women:

• We need more access to capital and opportunities for women.
• The emerging economy is more conducive to women, as greater flexibility is required.
• We are starting to make the shift around inclusivity. It should be about what skills and competencies you bring to the table, not about how aggressive you are. This requires a shift in mindset and a new generation of thinkers.
• There is bias against women on the investment side of technology companies. In the venture capital community, it is about who you know and networking. Women tend to occupy lower positions in local technology companies.

New Canadians:

• Policy, education, and competency assessment can help new Canadians become accustomed to the workplace.
• This is where we will draw talent from in a knowledge economy. Countries that do this well will be competitive.
• These perceptions will take time to change.

Childcare:

• We will need to look at the data to determine the results of parental leave policies, such as targeted leaves for non-birthing parents.
• Daycare is a big one, paternity leave, full day kindergarten like in Ontario.
• Childcare is critical for immigrants too, as they may not have family/friends to rely on.
• In some cases, women can take maternity leave, but it will punitively impact her career.
• Normalizing leave is important.

Q5) How can governments, industry, and western Canadians work together to grow the regional economy?

Approach:

• An agile, or team-of-teams, approach is most effective. Structures on how we approach this need to change.
• The future is about social and economic well-being being intricately linked.
• We need enhanced collaboration amongst stakeholders, and coordination between governments across various sectors, access to markets, people, and capital.
• We are focused on the city-level, and there is a fundamental disconnect in comparison to other countries where there is a strong, strategic approach to governments setting themselves up for success for the next 20 years.
• There is a recognition that the globe does not want multiple municipalities showing up separately. We need to integrate strategies and work towards a common goal.
• Leadership does not always need to be government.

Trade:

• We have cross-government tables to address removing inter-provincial trade barriers. The current ordering seems entirely politically motivated. If you re-ordered the list based on gross domestic product impact, that would be the best way. Truck transport would be the most important.

Workforce and industry:

• The conversation has gravitated to technical talent, but we also need leadership and soft skills.
• We need to develop industry-wide workforce development strategies.

Government: Regulation, procurement, funding and privatization:

• Pay attention to what businesses say. In government regulation, there is a culture of “here’s why we can’t.”
• This question is an extension of the procurement conversation. Government can do a lot of work with industry if they trust each other.
• We see very different provincial responses to federal matching of program dollars. Having consistency would be important. The politicization of the budget is problematic, and opportunities are lost if matching funding comes at a bad time.
• Privatization is a huge tool. Some areas should be privatized.  The government thinks they are protecting the public, but they are creating bureaucracies with no growth, economy, and intellectual property. It is very different between the United States and Canada. There are huge for-profit industries for education in the US, and zero in Canada. Government can set the standard, but not be in the business.
  • We use associations to act like businesses, but they are not businesses. They do not scale up with intellectual property and create the economy.

Technology and innovation:

• Hands down, open data is key. If the data were anonymized and shared properly, so many businesses could be created.
  • Alberta has a single health data store that exists nowhere else in the world. What could we do with it? So many health technology companies could be created.

Q6) Anything further to add? Anything missed?

Cities:

• The role of cities will continue to expand. It cannot be underplayed in the future. It is easy to discount the granular and local level.
• Too many strings are attached to municipal funding, such as the LRT.

Branding:

• Brand: brand is telling your story, and in order to do so, you need to articulate values and beliefs. We do not have a uniform set of values and objectives in the West. How do we tell a complex story?

Procurement and privatization:

• The combined governments spend a lot. Government procurement can change standards. Businesses need reference-able clients. In an innovation space, in order to have experience, it is a chess game. Multi-nationals can play it, but you can innovate within Canada. It is a powerful lever to drive a ton of innovation.
• Government is providing services no one else provides, such as education credentials. The internet has changed everything – you could unleash so many private sector ideas if the government did not need to be the ones controlling them. Just because you privatize does not mean you lose control.

Themes heard today:

• People: hard skills, soft skills, STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), training, and education.
• Technology: not just adopting, but leading and embracing it; commercialize it.
  • The importance of trust in the ecosystem.
• Policy: Procurement as a powerful tool or impediment, tax policy, immigration, exploring privatization, international trade, coordination.
• Infrastructure: pipelines, access to infrastructure.
• Culture: underpinning conversation, and the need of shifts.
• Brand: telling your story.