News Articles Archives - Polytechnics Canada

Read editorials and articles that we’ve submitted to national and regional media outlets across Canada. These feature a few of the ways Canadian polytechnics are contributing on topics of national interest.

The skilled trades boom — and bottleneck

By Seth Forward | September 30, 2026 | Originally featured in Canadian Affairs

After finishing a general arts degree at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2005, Martin Severino spent years working nomadically as a treeplanter and golf pro. Eventually, at 35, he decided to pivot to the skilled trades and chose to settle in his hometown of Kingston, Ont.

To his surprise, getting qualified and employed as an electrician was not easy.

Can Canada break its dependence on the U.S.?

By The Rundown on TVO | September 9, 2026 | Originally featured on TVO Today

As Canada looks for ways to reduce its economic dependence on the United States, what options are on the table? The Rundown examines efforts to remove interprovincial trade barriers and improve labour mobility across the country, with Sarah Watts-Rynard of Polytechnics Canada and Ryan Manucha of the C.D. Howe Institute. Then, could a proposed east-west oil pipeline help strengthen Canada’s energy security and economy? Oil market researcher Rory Johnston breaks down the potential benefits, costs, and challenges of a project being championed as a nation-building initiative by Premiers Doug Ford and Danielle Smith.

Trading up: Why young Canadians are choosing the trades over university

By Seth Forward | August 1, 2026 | Originally featured in Canadian Affairs

For generations, a university degree was seen as the path to a secure job. Now, many young Canadians are opting for the skilled trades.

Canada has a terrible track record for retaining apprentices in the skilled trades

By Hannah Hunter | June 29, 2026 | Originally featured in the Hamilton Spectator

With a major federal investment in the skilled trades earlier this spring, it is time for governments in Canada to pay attention to the nuts and bolts of apprenticeship training, ensuring those who take up the tools to build this country make it to the finish line.

Tools and talent

By Sarah Watts-Rynard | May 29, 2026 | Originally featured in The Globe and Mail

Innovation is, at its core, about the people who solve problems, find new approaches and drive value creation. This makes it essential to focus on developing and deploying talent, especially at a time when Canada is rewriting its trade, defence and infrastructure story for the next century.

Reliable short-term capability will deliver long-term defence strength

By Diana Danilevskaia | May 22, 2026 | Originally featured in the Canadian Science Policy Centre Defence Industrial Strategy Special Editorial Series

Imagine two countries facing the same threat. Both know the technology will evolve quickly and the first solution will be incomplete. One spends years refining requirements and waiting for certainty. The other gets a workable first version into testing, learns with users, fixes what matters and moves again. A few years later, the second country usually has the stronger position. It has a better tool, stronger suppliers, sharper operators, better data and a clearer sense of what should come next. In defence, capability often grows through movement. That lesson matters for Canada.

Skilled trades: a first-choice career

By Fred Meier | May 15, 2026 | Originally featured in the Winnipeg Free Press

Skilled tradespeople have always played a leading role in shaping Canada.

They’ve built, modified and maintained infrastructure that houses us, keeps us safe and makes it possible for us to have an advanced and diverse economy for generations.

Yet, somehow, we’ve failed to communicate this to young people at the family dinner table, in primary, middle and secondary school classrooms, at virtually any point of influence when discussing post-secondary education options.

We need more skilled workers and we need them faster

By Dr. Larry Rosia | April 4, 2026 | Originally featured in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix

In every conversation I have with employers – from mining and construction to energy and manufacturing – the message is consistent: ‘We need more skilled workers, and we need them faster.’

Across Canada, hundreds of thousands of tradespeople will retire by 2028. Employers are sounding the alarm. Here in Saskatchewan, we’ll need thousands of new apprentices and journeypersons just to maintain momentum, never mind delivering the ambitious nation-building the federal government envisions.

How to fix Canada’s sputtering productivity

By Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan | March 5, 2026 | Originally featured in the Hill Times

Canada is facing a national productivity emergency. This country’s economic output per worker, which has been stagnant for decades, took a turn for the worse during the pandemic, declining by 0.6 per cent since 2020.

Since the turn of the 21^st century, Canada has responded to this slow-growing crisis with familiar policies, modest reforms, and prolonged study. The results are now unmistakable: productivity has stalled and peer economies are pulling away, while Canada confronts stagnant wages, declining competitiveness, and growing economic insecurity. As this country works to build a more resilient national economy and diversify its international trading relationships, it must find a way to raise its lagging productivity now.