Humber Polytechnic Archives - Polytechnics Canada

Productivity Now: How an underutilized — yet proven — model of higher education can lift Canada’s economy out of the productivity crisis

By Humber Polytechnic | January 26, 2026 | Originally featured on the Humber Polytechnic website | 4.31MB | Download pdf >

Humber Polytechnic has released “Productivity Now,” a report on how to address the nation’s productivity emergency through its underutilized polytechnic model of education.

Authored by President and CEO Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan, “Productivity Now” argues that polytechnic education links theory to practice in ways that directly impact productivity, accelerate technology adoption and build end-to-end skills pipelines for sectors critical to Canada’s future.

Why hasn’t AI changed Canada yet?

By Ricardo Arena | January 15, 2025 | Originally featured in The Hill Times

Much has been written about Canada’s lagging innovation and productivity indicators. The federal government has struggled to offer effective solutions, alternating between big gambles on select sectors and splashy announcements that end with a fizzle.

Last month, however, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne quietly put out a press release detailing plans to allocate the Budget 2024 centrepiece: a $2-billion investment in artificial intelligence (AI). It signaled a welcome shift toward incorporating implementation and impact in Canada’s innovation ambitions.

Commercialization is critical for Canadian productivity. Colleges can help

By Ricardo Arena | October 9, 2024 | Originally featured in The Globe and Mail

While Canada’s weak productivity performance is not a new phenomenon, its impact is beginning to show more than ever.

Families are struggling with inflated living expenses, reduced job security and the high cost of housing, leaving many feeling as though they are falling behind. Small and mid-sized companies – the backbone of the economy – are burdened by long-standing capital investment challenges and rising operational costs, bogging down their ability to lead an economic expansion.

All signs point to the need to fire up Canada’s innovation engine. Postsecondary institutions can help.

A new model to revolutionize higher education

By Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan | September 19, 2024 | Originally featured in The Globe and Mail

Higher education has the power to change lives, build communities and drive economic growth. And it’s time for the model to change.

For years, education has followed the same approach to delivery: students enroll in a program, take a set of courses and earn a credential. This approach assumes that every student follows the same pathway to graduation.

Higher education has essentially been an assembly line, adhering to a status quo education model where everybody comes in the same way and goes out the same way. This no longer suits the world for which we are preparing our students.

Humber College uses digital twins to make buildings smarter

By Wallace Immen | September 28, 2023 | Originally featured in The Globe and Mail

On a scorching summer day at Toronto’s Humber College, a smart system precools buildings in the early morning to avoid the afternoon spike in electrical rates at peak demand time. Another system turns on lights in rooms only when people are using them. And when the weather is cold, heat pumps have learned to redirect heat from crowded spaces on campus to other buildings that can use some warming.

Since 2014, Humber College facilities have grown by 25 per cent, yet the school’s use of smart controls as well as energy-efficiency initiatives and retrofits has reduced energy use per square foot by more than 20 per cent.