It’s All About People – Really! Some Human Capital Priorities for Canada in 2015

Press Release

January 21, 2015 – “It’s all about people” should be the theme that guides Canada’s actions in 2015, according to Institute President and CEO William B. P. Robson. In “It’s All About People – Really! Some Human Capital Priorities for Canada in 2015,” Robson provides his perspective on national policy priorities for the new year.

Prepared for the Institute’s National Council, the report lays out Robson’s recommendations for building, deploying and equipping our human capital, and creating an environment that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation. His recommendations include:

• Raising the profile of key international education performance measures, like PISA and TIMSS, and committing to moving Canada back into the front rank;
• Ottawa should build on recent immigration reforms to attract, and ease the entry of, people who will succeed in the labour market;
• Ottawa should respond to rapidly increasing longevity by supporting later and more comfortable retirements, largely through more generous treatment of tax-deferred saving;
• Ottawa should facilitate labour-market adjustment with EI reforms and its Job Matching Service – especially important since lower oil prices may produce sectoral shifts;
• Cities should modernize their capital budgeting to support infrastructure investments that improve their dynamism and quality of life; and
• Ottawa should pursue international agreements that let ambitious people live and work in Canada while accessing global markets.

Robson concludes that, as in organizations, the quality of human capital, and the skill with which leaders foster its development and productive activity, is the most important determinant of a country’s success.

For the paper go to: http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/verbatim_2015_robson_william.pdf

For more information contact: William B.P. Robson, President and CEO, C.D. Howe Institute, at 416-865-1904; E-mail: kmurphy@cdhowe.org.

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