Fast results wanted from new think-tank

OTTAWA — Federal efforts to calm anxiety about a rapidly changing job market took another step Thursday as the Liberals launched a new agency ahead of a federal budget that will put a heavy focus on skills training.

The new “Future Skills Centre” job training centre — run by Ryerson University, The Conference Board of Canada and Blueprint ADE — is to advise the federal government on how to prepare workers for digital shifts in the job market and help workers make decisions about how to develop the in-demand skills they’ll need to land and maintain good jobs.

The Liberals are hoping for early wins from the arm’s-length agency, which will be part thinktank and part lab to test ideas big and small so Canadians can see tangible results from what risks being seen as an academic exercise.

“My hope is the sooner we can actually talk about specific projects, or specific pilots, the better we can bring it alive for Canadians in terms of what this investment means for their children’s future, for their own future,” Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said in an telephone interview.

At the same time, Canada’s labour minister says she is looking at ways to get workers to use skills-training programs routinely as part of their normal working lives rather than waiting for a layoff or work crisis.

The question, as always, revolves around money: how much can the public purse handle and how much is needed for any measure to work?

“We’d have to ask ourselves, ‘What actually would make a meaningful change to Canadians and is that enough to incent people to use the benefit?’” Hajdu said.

She said the government would look at data from other G7 nations to see whether things like a tax credit for taking training in new skills “actually does result in people able to re-enter education or skills training.”

The percentage of Canadian workers researchers say are at high risk of being affected by automation over the next two decades varies from nine to 42 per cent, depending on the study.