2020 – Written Submission for the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2021 Federal Budget

Key recommendations include:

  1. Create Economic Recovery Hubs hosted at Regional Development Agencies with a view to enabling small- and mid-sized businesses to enhance their productivity and innovation potential with the support of local innovation intermediaries
  2. Empower Canadians to rapidly retrain and upskill by providing financial support and navigation to short-cycle training programs focused on career-relevant skills
  3. To ensure talent pipeline continuity for frontline occupations, invest in the digital learning infrastructure required for the delivery of remote, simulated and hybrid hands-on training
  4. Relaunch the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund, building in flexible project eligibility criteria to enable both new construction and green retrofits, the repurposing of existing buildings, and health & safety-related transformations required to keep campuses safe, innovative and sustainable
  5. Introduce a Technology Access Grant within the Canada Student Loan Program to address equity of access to the hardware, software and broadband internet required for postsecondary education delivered in remote and hybrid formats

Elder care reform must start with skills training

When it comes to tragedy, the human instinct is to assign blame. In the case of pandemic-induced deaths in Canada’s long-term care facilities, there are no end of culprits: governments for regulatory and oversight failures, owners and managers for poor employment practices, workers for abandoning their posts. Regardless of the direction the finger is pointing, the reality is that the senior population is growing, the cost of high-quality elder care is sky-rocketing and demographics dictate that the need for long-term care is here to stay.

Read More > “Elder care reform must start with skills training”