Canada West Foundation relaunches
The big question, since Dylan Jones stepped in to fill the president and chief executive slot at the Canada West Foundation when Roger Gibbins retired in May 2012, has been what will change at the 43-year-old organization?
Last month, the answer to that question was revealed, as Jones unfurled a new structure aimed at the CWF staking its claim in three distinct areas — human capital, trade and investment and natural resources — and led by an expert in each field.
Not that the old model was bro- ken, rather Jones believes the direction of economic development of Western Canada in the coming decades is going to look different than it did during the organization’s first 40 years; markets are global, labour is at a premium and the way natural resources are developed — and will be developed — has changed.
One has to remember the genesis of the Canada West Foundation was to give Western Canada a voice on the national stage.
In many respects, it was the tangible incarnation of an exchange between Pierre Trudeau and then premier Peter Lougheed at a 1973 meeting, in Calgary, of the western premiers.
At one point, Trudeau asked the group “Who speaks for Canada?”, to which Lougheed responded “We all do.”
It was a time when the West wanted in and Lougheed was committed to a vision of “a strong West in a strong Canada.”
Today, Western Canada is not only firmly established on the national stage but integral to the health of the country’s economy, which is why Jones sees the organization as needing to focus more closely on issues important to ensuring the long-term economic prosperity of both the region and the country.
One of those critical areas is adapting to the changing global markets. As Carlo Dade, who is leading the Centre for Trade and Investment policy, points out, Canada does well at focusing on the ‘crisis of the moment,’ such as how to deal with market access to the United States or China, but the broader issue is the fact global markets are becoming increasingly regionalized.
With decreased prospects for the beleaguered Doha Round of trade negotiations, the reality is that the world is being divided into regionalized trading blocks. What this means is that it’s important for Western Canada, as well as the entire country, to focus on how to fit into this new world order. And while the focus in the West — especially of late — has been on growing markets for natural resource production, Dade points out the continued growth of the middle class in the developing world creates a unique opportunity for western Canadian agriculture.
“By 2030, we will see a doubling of the middle class on the planet, to 6 billion. And what that means is a growing demand for food,” he said.
“Western Canada is in a unique position to play an important role. There is no way we should get this wrong.” One way to gain better access to these markets is to leverage the existing Diaspora in Canada with their respective countries of origin. According to Dade, Canada is behind the U.S. when it comes to forging relationships through the immigrant population.
“A 10 per cent immigration increase should see a boost of imports and exports to and from that same country; Canada doesn’t do as well at this as the U.S.,” he said.
If maximizing the value from Western Canada’s export prospects is Dade’s focus, the issue of developing a skilled workforce to meet the needs of the changing economy will be the focus of the Centre for Human Capital policy led by Janet Lane.
As the former executive director of Literacy Alberta, Lane is well-equipped to address the challenges facing Alberta’s labour force.
Earlier this month, the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development released its first study examining adult skills in the developed world.
While Canada scored well when it came to having strong digital skills — ahead of Germany, the United States and the U.K. — we didn’t fare as well in the areas of literacy and numeracy. Alberta scored higher than average for literacy on the study and was at the OECD average for numeracy skills.
Where this doesn’t quite add up is in the fact Alberta continues to have the highest high school dropout rate in the country, along with a 40 per cent dropout rate from apprenticeship programs.
According to Lane, a one per cent increase in literacy skills leads to a 2.5 per cent boost in productivity. Thus, when it comes to the issue of a skills shortage, one has to surmise that if there were a way to stem the dropout rate, it would go a long way to dealing with the labour challenges in Alberta.
“It’s tough to hire everyone we need … It would be better to address the issue from an internal perspective,” she said, which means understanding where the education system is both succeeding and failing and addressing the gaps.
The questions that Lane says need to be asked range from how we ensure high school graduates have the skills they need to be successful in either the trades or post-secondary arenas to ensuring access to post-secondary opportunities in both the academic and non-academic streams.
It’s these types of issues that Lane is getting ready to tackle. And with Prime Minister Stephen Harper having expressed concern over the country’s skills shortage because of the challenge it presents from the perspective of economic growth, this is an area where providing informed research is critical.
The third research centre, headed up by Len Coad, who was formerly at the Conference Board of Canada, will focus on Natural Resources policy and capture all relevant resource development — oil and gas, mining and forestry — and include addressing the omnipresent themes of environmental outcomes, market access and social license.
“One of the biggest challenges for companies,” says Coad, “is obtaining and maintaining the social license to operate.”
Part of this, too, includes understanding the issues of First Nations.
This is broader than what a company needs to get support for a project. It’s about creating a situation where the public has confidence that what needs to be done will be done.
Among the looming challenges is re-establishing societal trust in government to manage the environmental and social pressures in the communities where development takes place.
One of the key mind sets that need to change is promoting a shift from measuring performance and meeting standards to achieving outcomes, because that forces companies to go beyond simply meeting a standard.
And from a governance perspective, there needs to be a clearer understanding by government, industry and the public, that the first responsibility of a Minister of the Crown is to protect the public good, not necessarily to look after the interests of industry.
The challenge faced by many think tanks is ensuring their research and the positions ultimately taken on issues are relevant.
It’s one thing to be an organization that simply looks at the issue through the lens of what a government isn’t doing right — and criticize it. But it’s another thing entirely to examine the challenges faced by society, industry and economy, examine what’s working and what isn’t and offer constructive, non-partisan analysis and solutions. What many people don’t realize is that so much of what Canadians hear in the context of public policy, with few exceptions such as the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, isn’t ‘made in Canada,’ much less made in Western Canada.
“Too much of the public debate on important issues is not being formed or informed from a Canadian perspective,” notes Dade.
Hence the new thrust of the Canada West Foundation; one which Jones says is determined to bring forward ‘calm but bold’ alternatives.
“Our goal is to be a world class think-tank that happens to be based in the west; the place for the development of natural resource policy with a western Canadian focus that takes into account issues of trade and human capital … That’s the next big challenge
“There really isn’t another game in town in terms of values, or the orientation on issues that have resonance with this region,” said Jones.
It’s an ambitious goal, but for the Oxford-educated Jones, who worked alongside Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall before taking on the challenge of leading the CWF, it’s one that is within reach.