CALGARY DROPPING OFF AMAZON’S RADAR HIGHLIGHTS ‘BIG GAP’ IN CITY’S WORKFORCE
The omission of Calgary from Amazon’s shortlist of locations for its second headquarters brought disappointment, and an important teaching moment. We don’t have the talent required for the tech big leagues.
In other words, if Calgary is serious about building critical mass in the new economy, it must do more than promise to fight a bear.
This is about creating a workforce for the future. If the real estate mantra is location, location, location, Calgary’s focus should be talent, talent, talent.
But wait a minute, you say, we have that. Look at all those engineers and professionals working in the science-related disciplines. All true. But Amazon wants critical mass at both the senior and entry levels in the digital space, and the hard truth is Calgary doesn’t have it.
“We have tech capabilities, but not the right ones. We don’t have the workforce for the future. There is a big gap,” Mary Moran, president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development, said in an interview.
The University of Calgary produces fewer than 200 computer science and math graduates every year; the University of Alberta averages about 330. That’s nowhere near enough.
When British Columbia commits to funding 2,900 new post-secondary spaces to train the next generation of tech workers, as it did this week, it should be a wake up call for the Alberta government and our 26 post-secondary institutions. As should Ontario’s plan to increase the number of graduates from the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) by 25 per cent — to 50,00 — within the next five years.
Sure, you say, but we can attract people from the rest of Canada given our quality of life and lower cost of living.
Again, true. But that would not yield a workforce of 50,000 people with the expertise needed to staff Amazon’s HQ2.
Disappointing as it was, Thursday’s news isn’t the end of the world.
First of all, Calgary is on the map as a potential site for other companies looking to expand but not needing the same critical mass of talent.
“We could have seen 5,000 people here, 50,000 would have been impossible,” said Moran, citing the difficulty local companies like Solium and Benevity have encountered in filling their labour needs.
And, for what it’s worth, CED’s “fight a bear” pledge has been adopted as an idiom within Amazon!
But that doesn’t deal with the fact there are qualified engineers and science graduates in a wide array of disciplines that need to be given the skills to pivot into the new economy.
“We need a post-secondary strategy and a K-12 strategy to train the next generation of knowledge workers,” said Bill Sembo, the former vice-chairman of RBC Capital Markets who chaired the province’s Amazon HQ2 team.
Equally important, he said, is finding a way to equip unemployed workers with the skills to operate in the digital world.
Both options require a concerted effort by government and post-secondary institutions to recruit new faculty to Alberta to educate the next generation and help the current generation pivot to the new economy.
Business also needs to be involved. The truth is, the energy sector has become very dependent on technology, and there is more tech talent resident in the oilpatch today than ever. The quest to reduce the industry’s environmental footprints, decrease costs and increase productivity also offers more opportunity than ever before.
Creating a critical mass of individuals able to meaningfully contribute to the next tech company looking at Calgary — or who decide to start something on their own — is the direction we need to take.
We also need infrastructure to support the growth and development of new companies.
The Nucleus space at Cenovus, District Ventures, ZoneStartups and the Hunter Hub, are examples of this, but Calgary needs more working spaces — and not just empty office towers — if it’s to really grow in this area.
Longtime entrepreneur and Rainforest Calgary co-founder Brad Zumwalt said Thursday’s news can be viewed through the lens of a business considering a buy or build opportunity.
The ‘buy’ in this case was bidding for Amazon HQ2 versus what Calgary does now, which is build.
“We had an enormous opportunity to work with Amazon to submit our bid — and now we realize what we have to offer. This should give us more resolve to build for the future. We need to get busy, building,” he said Thursday, referring to both talent and infrastructure.
As Zumwalt and others said Thursday, this won’t happen overnight. A deliberate process is needed to support those companies that do choose to set up shop in the city and those that are created here.
The success of the Waterloo tech sector in Ontario has been two decades in the making.
Equally important is the fact there’s a lot happening in Calgary, including the work being done by Calgary Economic Development to attract companies. The Amazon HQ2 announcement will be welcomed by some given the pressure it would have placed on the city, not to mention existing companies scrambling to fill vacant positions.
Besides, the tech and digital world is made up of more than Amazon. There will be other opportunities.
This city — and the province — was built by a combination of risk taking, entrepreneurialism and dogged determination on the part of individuals who aspired to create an economy that was bold, productive and relevant.
The process of bidding for HQ2 gave Calgary the opportunity to learn more about itself, what it can offer and the gaps it needs to fill.
It’s a teaching moment that cannot — and should not — be wasted.