Insights on postsecondary institutions, Canada’s current and future workforce, and industry sectors.

POSTSECONDARY INSTITUTIONS

The Government of Canada announced an investment of more than $690 million in science and research funding, including more than $198 million to support 259 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs in postsecondary institutions across the country. More than $482 million will be distributed through the Research Support Fund, administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, on behalf of the three federal research granting agencies, to ensure researchers and institutions across Canada are equipped to address new demands in the current research environment and to compete on a global scale. The $690-million investment includes nearly $134 million through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to support research infrastructure projects at 63 postsecondary institutions across the country. These investments are being made through the CFI’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), a critical tool designed to help institutions attract and retain the very best researchers, and the CFI’s College Fund, which supports applied research and technology development that address the social, business, health or environmental needs of a Canadian industry or community.

Projects funded through JELF include:

• Making explosives safer and more efficient (Carleton University).
• Refining mineral exploration (University of British Columbia Okanagan).
• Turning waste into energy (Dalhousie University).

Projects funded through the College Fund include:

• 3D printing homes (Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingu).
• Developing renewable materials (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology).

“By equipping universities and colleges with cutting edge research tools and labs that underpin innovation, we help ensure Canada remains secure, productive and globally competitive,” Sylvain Charbonneau, president of CFI, said in a statement. CFI

The University of Calgary this fall welcomed its first class in the bachelor of science in energy science program – a new degree designed to meet the evolving needs of the energy sector and address the growing shortage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent across the country. Developed in consultation with Calgary’s energy industry, the program offers a multidisciplinary curriculum built on a strong foundation of energy science – including geoscience, physics and chemistry, but also economics, Indigenous relations, public policy and communication. “It’s designed to produce graduates who understand the full energy ecosystem – from subsurface resources to renewables – and who can navigate the intersections of science, business and society,” said Dr. Kristin Baetz, PhD, dean of the Faculty of Science at UCalgary. Universities cannot prepare students to enter the ever-evolving and transforming STEM industries of today and tomorrow based on curriculums of five, 10 or 20 years ago, she said. “We are not doing our students, communities or Canada’s economy any good if our universities don’t innovate and anticipate the needs of the future.” Over the longer term, UCalgary is supporting the growing demand for STEM education and research by building a new Science District – a transformative $450-million expansion that will add capacity for 2,000 more science students by 2030. At its heart will be the university’s most complex and high-tech building, a hub for transdisciplinary research and innovation in collated laboratories, classrooms and collaboration spaces. Calgary Herald

Ontario’s universities need a new way of securing funding to release them from their “financial chokehold” due to a significant decline in government funding and grants, former federal deputy minister of finance Fred Gorbet said in an op-ed in The Globe and Mail. University fees should be deregulated and universities should be allowed to compete with one another, he said. “If universities were allowed to set their own fees, they would be empowered to make important management and governance decisions about where they want to compete and excel, and what kind of institution they wish to become.” In a deregulated world, one would expect to find increased specialization, a greater variety of institutional offerings, more centres of excellence, and possibly increased co-operation and collaboration among institutions. To make this adjustment work, the Ontario government should provide transition support, Gorbet said. The government should maintain the current per-student allocations to each university, but deliver the funds as a block grant to the institution, indexed to inflation, for at least a 10-year period, to facilitate the transformation to a more competitive environment. The Globe and Mail

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Canadian universities’ reliance on tuition fees for revenue has increased in last two decades while public funding has declined

The financial and economic environment in which Canadian universities operate has evolved in the last two decades, marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased reliance on international student tuition fees as a source of revenue, according to a study by Statistics Canada (StatsCan).

The study, on financial ratios for Canadian universities, uses data from StatsCan’s Financial Information of Universities Survey from 2016/2017 to 2022/2023.

“Given the rapidly changing and challenging fiscal environment, universities have and will face future financial pressures that need to be monitored,” StatsCan said.

“These indicators can shed light on how universities are positioned to manage their revenues and expenses in times of rapid economic change. These indicators also show what vulnerabilities may exist for certain types of universities so that corrective action to mitigate future financial pressures.”

The financial ratios are analyzed over various university characteristics, such as size, belonging to the U15 Canada group of research universities, and level (graduate or undergraduate).

Universities are heterogeneous institutions, so these characteristics were chosen to group institutions into common groups for comparability, StatsCan said.

“Larger universities have economies of scale compared with smaller universities, and U15 members and graduate universities likely have more focus on research and publication than undergraduate universities, which mostly focus on instruction.”

StatsCan said its study highlights the university characteristics associated with specific financial pressures or dependencies.

The results show changes to the ratios before, during and after the pandemic, which include impacts on university finances such as increased federal government funds for research projects, the closures of campuses, variation of international students and record gains of interest income. From 2016/2017 to 2022/2023, larger, U15 and graduate universities tended to have higher relative revenue for research, a higher tuition discount rate and a lower dependency on ancillary revenues, the study found.

Other indicators, such as the academic salary ratio, were largely similar and stable over time and across university characteristics.

The tuition funding ratio has increased steadily across all university characteristics, reaching a high in 2021/2022 and dropping slightly in 2022/2023.

In 2022/2023, it was 5.7 percentage points higher for non-U15 universities compared with U15 universities, 2.6 percentage points lower for large universities compared with very small universities, and 7.7 percentage points lower for graduate universities compared with undergraduate universities.

In 2020/2021 and 2022/2023, there was an increase in interest revenue from investments as a proportion of total revenue. This had the resulting effect of decreasing the proportion of tuition funding in total revenue.

Given the rapid rise of tuition fees and the influx of international students, who pay as much as four times the tuition fees as domestic students, this ratio has increased, and tuition revenues have grown as a proportion of total revenues compared with other sources, StatsCan noted.

The recent federal government change in policy with respect to the restriction on international students will likely have a financial impact in the 2024/2025 fiscal year and beyond, StatsCan said.

The results of the tuition dependency ratio indicate that this change in policy could more heavily influence the revenues of some universities in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, according to StatsCan.

Conversely, Yukon, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, which rely more on public funding for postsecondary education, may be less affected by a drop in international student enrolment. 

The public funding ratio largely measures a university’s dependence on provincial and territorial education budgets and other public funding sources (e.g. federal and municipal). 

In general, the public funding ratio has remained relatively stable for the last three fiscal years, according to StatsCan.

However, in Canada, the amount of public funding has fallen from a high of 60.7 percent in 2008/2009 to 44.8 percent in 2022/2023, which was largely driven by trends in Ontario.

In Ontario, public funding has fallen from 54.3 percent in 2008/2009 to 32.5 percent in 2022/2023 and, given it is the largest province, has drawn the Canadian average down.

The three highest publicly funded provinces and territories are Yukon (83.3 percent), Quebec (64.1 percent) and Newfoundland and Labrador (59.7 percent).

The three provinces that have the highest proportion of their total revenue coming from tuition fees are Ontario (41 percent), Nova Scotia (33.3 percent) and British Columbia (33.1 percent).

In 2022/2023, the public funding ratio was similar for U15 and non-U15 universities, highest for medium-sized universities (50.8 percent) and 10.8 percentage points higher for graduate versus undergraduate universities.

The academic salary ratio measures total academic salaries, excluding benefits, as a percentage of total expenditures. Total salaries and wages, including non-academic salaries are the largest operating expense for Canadian universities and made up 60.4 percent of total university expenditures in 2022/2023. 

For the 2022/2023 fiscal year, the academic salary ratio was 1.2 percentage points higher for non-U15 universities compared with U15 universities, highest for small universities (28.8 percent) and 2.9 percentage points higher for graduate universities compared with undergraduate universities.

Since 2021/2022, the academic salary ratio has generally dropped for all university types.

The research funding ratio measures the proportion of university revenue reserved for academic research activities in total revenue. In general, a university that wishes to attract top research faculty, graduate students and government grants will try to keep up a relatively high research budget. 

Since before the pandemic, there has been little change in the research funding ratio across all university characteristics, StatsCan said.

Even though the federal government provided an additional $416 million in funding dollars during the pandemic to support research activities, the increase was not enough to influence this ratio.

In 2022/2023, the research funding ratio was 18 percentage points higher for U15 versus non-U15 universities, 20.2 percentage points higher for large versus very small universities and 13.9 percentage points higher for graduate versus undergraduate universities.

“The large differences in the ratios clearly show the variation in university core activities based on their characteristics. U15, larger and graduate universities focus a much larger portion of their revenues and operations on research activities.” Statistics Canada

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Canadian post-secondary institutions should create branch campuses in other countries as some foreign universities have done, as a way of mitigating decreasing funding and declining international student enrolment, said Chun-Kai Wang, a recent graduate of Simon Fraser University’s School of International Studies. Branch campuses would complement domestic strategies in Canada, providing a parallel stream of revenue and reputation-building that Canadian subsidies alone cannot achieve, he said in a commentary in Policy Options. Branch campuses also would give Canada new leverage in global education, enhancing “soft power” and creating pathways for skilled immigration that directly serves Canada’s long-term economic needs, Wang said. “While some assistance from Ottawa and the provinces may be beneficial to the schools in this area, the key is the independent resolve of each individual institution to get this done.” Schools in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia have spent decades building global networks of branch campuses in other countries so that students don’t have to leave their homes to get a Western higher education, Wang noted. Meanwhile, McGill University President Deep Saini announced that the university plans to establish “satellite campuses” in other countries. He offered no details on the timeline or target cities. Policy Options, Montreal Gazette

Universities should consider offering scholarships to incentivize graduate students to work with local businesses as part of their research duties, to help increase the number of domestic pharmaceutical companies that partner with universities, Andrew Kemle, government and external relations manager of the Graduate Students’ Association at the University of Calgary, said in an op-ed in The Globe and Mail. Pivoting Canada away from U.S. pharmaceutical companies is one way to mitigate the leverage U.S. President Donald Trump has over Canada, should drug prices become part of the trade war, he said. “Expanding our own pharmaceutical and biomedical fields would help, in addition to increasing the number of high-tech industries in Canada.” Another option is to make it easier for universities to transfer intellectual property to university spinoffs, rather than sell the intellectual property to the highest bidder including U.S. companies, as suggested in a research paper from UCalgary’s School of Public Policy, Kemle said. The Globe and Mail

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More investment needed in young student innovators and capacity to innovate

The University of Waterloo is a pioneer in investing in its entrepreneurial students and startup founders – something that many postsecondary institutions in the U.S. do, Drayton Mulindabigwi, Rwandan-Canadian entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Ottawa-based Nova Group, said during a Canadian Science Policy Centre-Research Money webinar, “Co-Creating Canada’s Future: Youth Perspectives on Canada’s Seven Federal Missions.”

UWaterloo invests in its student entrepreneurs through grants, funding and resources, primarily via the Velocity Incubator. Initiatives include the $10,000 Momentum Grant in non-dilutive funding for recent graduates with startups, a $5-million investment in a venture capital fund (Velocity Fund II), support for programs (such as the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business) and a new 90,000-square-foot building on campus designed to launch startups, create jobs and commercialize technology.

“Because they (UWaterloo] investing at the capital tables, they’re investing in pouring talent into some of these companies that are up and coming,” Mulindabigwi said.

Government policy is needed to support more Canadian postsecondary institutions in investing in their entrepreneurial students and founders, he said.

Ella Wiggins, business development specialist for communications technology at Invest Ottawa, said during the webinar that Canada is at pivotal point when it comes to talent.

“We have about a 15-year window where we need to train the talent of tomorrow, today,” and making sure that talent stays in Canada, she said.

To do that, Canada needs to be building more sovereign value chains here at home with opportunities that will enable young innovators to design, protype and build here at home “instead of sending their ideas and IP and careers abroad,” Wiggins said.

The choice for the young generation is clear, she said: “We can either rent out our future from others or we can really invest in the capacity to build it ourselves.” Canadian Science Policy Centre

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Canada’s higher education sector spent just under $19 billion on research and development in 2023/2024 – a 7.2-percent increase from the previous year, according to data from Statistics Canada. The higher education sector is comprised of all universities, colleges of technology, and other institutions that provide formal tertiary education programs, as well as all research institutes and centres, experimental stations, and clinics that are operated under the direct control of higher education institutions. Total expenditures on R&D are classified into two fields of science: natural sciences and engineering; and social sciences, humanities and the arts. In 2023/2024, the natural sciences and engineering field spent about $14.2 billion on R&D. The social sciences, humanities and the arts spent about $4.8 billion on R&D. In 2023/24, the six funding sources for R&D expenditures in the higher education sector and the amount they spent were: business enterprises about $1.27 billion); private non-profit organizations (about $2.33 billion); the federal government ($4.5 billion); provincial governments (about $1.5 billion); the foreign sector ($173 million); and internal funding from the higher education sector (about $9.3 billion). Statistics Canada

CANADA'S CURRENT & FUTURE WORKFORCE 

Budget 2025 makes significant investments in Canada’s workforce

The Government of Canada says Budget 2025 will invest $97 million over five years to create a Foreign Credential Recognition Action Fund.

The federal government will work with the provinces and territories to make credential recognition fairer, faster and more transparent, helping qualified foreign-trained professionals contribute more quickly to Canada’s workforce, including in fields facing labour shortages such as health care and construction.

Budget 2025 also will provide an additional $75 million to expand a fund that supports union-based apprenticeship training in skilled trades, the government said.

This will boost union-based apprenticeship training in the Red Seal trades and ensure there are Canadian workers to build major infrastructure and millions more homes across the country, Ottawa said. 

Budget 2025 also will introduce a temporary five-year Personal Support Workers Tax Credit. Eligible workers will be able to claim a refundable tax credit equal to five percent of their eligible earnings, providing support of up to $1,100 per year. This new tax credit will be available in provinces and territories that are not covered by a bilateral agreement with the federal government to increase wages for personal support workers.

To protect workers’ rights, promote labour mobility and strengthen competition, the budget will amend the Canada Labour Code to restrict the use of non-compete agreements in employment contracts for federally regulated businesses. This will empower workers to move more freely to a higher-paying career or start their own business.

Additionally, for workers impacted by U.S. tariffs, and as announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney in September, the government is implementing a new reskilling package, launching a new digital jobs and training platform to quickly connect Canadians to careers, and enacting temporary Employment Insurance measures to support people whose jobs have been impacted.

The new reskilling and support package for workers affected by trade disruptions includes:

• $50 million over five years and $8 million ongoing, to implement a new digital tool to facilitate job search and applications, and launch a national online training platform in partnership with the private sector. 

• $570 million over three years through Labour Market Development Agreements with provinces and territories to support training and employment assistance for workers impacted by tariffs and global market shifts.
• $382.9 million over five years, and $56.1 million ongoing, to launch new Workforce Alliances to bring together employers, unions and industry groups to work on ways to help businesses and workers succeed in the changing labour market and coordinate public and private investments in skills development. A new Workforce Innovation Fund will invest in projects tailored to local job markets to help businesses in key sectors and regions recruit and retain the workforce they need. 
• Temporary flexibilities to the Employment Insurance (EI) Work-Sharing Program to provide EI benefits to eligible employees who agree to work reduced hours due to a decrease in business activity beyond their employer’s control. This helps employers and employees avoid layoffs while supplementing reduced income with EI benefits. This measure is expected to cost $370.5 million over five years, and $18.5 million ongoing.

• Temporary EI measures that enhance income supports for Canadian workers whose jobs have been impacted by the economic uncertainty caused by foreign tariffs. These supports are expected to cost $3.6 billion over three years. Finance Canada

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Recognition of credentials and better utilization of immigrant women with a nursing education could help ease Canada’s nursing shortage

Better utilization of immigrant women with a nursing education could help ease Canada’s nursing shortage, according to a Statistics Canada (StatsCan) study.

However, many internationally educated nurses “are on the sidelines instead of working as nurses because of regulatory difficulties in recertifying to work in the nursing profession in Canada,” says the study by Christoph Schimmele and Fen Hou, both with the economic and social analysis and modelling division at StatsCan.

There were 21,000 job vacancies for registered nurses and 10,000 vacancies for licensed practical nurses in the first quarter of 2025, according to StatsCan.

Schimmele’s and Hou’s study, published in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, examines how place of education is associated with the underutilization of immigrant women with a nursing education.

The study used data from the 2021 Census of Population and focused on immigrant women aged 25 to 64 years who were educated to be licensed practical nurses, registered nurses or nurse practitioners, which are occupations that require a licence to practise.

Immigrant women identified as underutilized workers were those who had a nursing education but were employed in non-health occupations or in health occupations requiring less education than they had obtained.

Immigrant women accounted for more than one-quarter (27 percent) of the total supply of working-age Canadians with a nursing education.

In 2021, there were 508,000 people in Canada aged 25 to 64 years who had a nursing education from either a Canadian or a foreign school.

Of this supply of nurses, 13 percent (64,600) were immigrant women who received their nursing education in Canada and 14 percent (71,300) were immigrant women who received their nursing education in other countries.

Most immigrant women who received their nursing education from a foreign school (85 percent) or a Canadian school (77 percent) were from a racialized population group.

Immigrant women from the Filipino (43 percent) and South Asian (20 percent) population groups accounted for the largest shares of internationally educated nurses.

Large percentages of immigrant women who were educated in Canada were from the Black (28 percent), Filipino (14 percent), South Asian (13 percent) and Chinese (seven percent) population groups.

Women from the White population group also accounted for large shares of those who received their nursing education in Canada (23 percent) and abroad (15 percent).

Among those nurses who were employed, a large percentages of immigrant women with a nursing education from a foreign school did not have a health occupation.

As few as one-half of those from the Chinese (53 percent) and Korean or Japanese (50 percent) population groups had a health occupation in 2021, and “thus one-half were employed in occupations that made no use of their nursing education.”

Immigrant women from other population groups fared somewhat better, since two-thirds to three-quarters had a health occupation. Those from the Black population group fared the best, four-fifths (83 percent) of whom had a health occupation.

Even when employed in a health occupation, internationally educated nurses were often employed in jobs that underutilized their nursing education, such as those who were educated to be registered nurses but were employed as practical nurses, orderlies or caregivers.

One-third to two-thirds of internationally educated nurses (IENs) had a job that matched their educational attainment.

“Hence, internationally educated nurses generally experienced a great disadvantage in getting a suitable job in the nursing profession, but there was substantial variation across population groups in the percentage who had a job that matched their nursing education,” Schimmele and Hou said.

Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of IENs from the Filipino population group had a health occupation, but less than two-fifths (38 percent) of them had a job that matched their educational attainment. “Thus, about one-third of them had health jobs that did not fully utilize their nursing education.”

Across other population groups, one-tenth (White, Arab or West Asian) to one-quarter (Black, Latin American, South Asian, ,Southeast Asian) of IENs were employed in health jobs that did not require the level of education they had.

The employment outcomes of immigrant women who received their nursing education in Canada resembled the outcomes of their Canadian-born counterparts more closely than those of foreign-educated immigrants.

“This is an important finding because it indicates that place of education matters more than immigrant status in terms of the employment of immigrant women in the nursing profession,” Schimmele and Hou noted.

Canadian-educated immigrants have a different pathway into the nursing profession than their foreign-educated counterparts. Many Canadian-educated immigrant women arrived in Canada as children or adolescents, while foreign-educated immigrant women arrived as adults.

The barriers to employment in the nursing profession that foreign-educated immigrant women experience, such as non-recognition of nursing credentials and language proficiency, are not relevant to immigrants who received their nursing education, and often their primary and secondary education, in Canada, Schimmele and Hou said.

Most immigrant women with a nursing education from a Canadian school had a health occupation (86 percent to 93 percent).

Across population groups, about four-fifths or more had health occupations that matched their educational attainment. In most cases, a modest percentage (two percent to seven percent) of Canadian-educated immigrant women had a health job that underutilized their nursing education.

However, larger percentages of those from the Black (13 percent) and Southeast Asian (nine percent) population groups had a health job that did not require the level of education they had.

Across population groups, labour market underutilization was a common experience among immigrant women who received their nursing education abroad, but those from most racialized groups were less likely to have a job that matched their nursing education (35 percent to 51 percent) compared with those from the White population group (54 percent).

The exceptions were IENs from the Black population group, who were similar to their White counterparts on this outcome, and those from the Arab or West Asian population group, who were more likely to have a job that matched their education (62 percent) than their White counterparts.

Among immigrant women who received their nursing education in Canada, there was less evidence that those from racialized population groups had worse employment outcomes than those from the White population group.

A smaller percentage of those from the South Asian (79 percent) and Southeast Asian (77 percent) population groups had a job that matched their nursing education than those from the White population group (82 percent).

However, a comparatively higher percentage of those from the Chinese (87 percent) and Korean or Japanese (90 percent) population groups that received their nursing education in Canada had a job that matched their education. Otherwise, there were no significant differences in this outcome between racialized and White women.

Immigrants come to Canada with the expectation that the education they acquired abroad will be relevant to the Canadian labour market, Schimmele and Hou said.

“However, many immigrant women who received their nursing education from a foreign school are not working in their field, and many are not even working in a health occupation. This underutilization of their human capital is an issue for the economic integration of immigrants and also represents lost productivity for the Canadian economy.”
 Improvement in skill utilization is essential, because immigrants who have to settle for low-skill jobs can experience de-skilling overtime, thus entrapping them in a low socioeconomic position, Schimmele and Hou said. “Moreover, their integration into the nursing workforce can ease the nursing shortage and reduce the burdensome workloads that are prevalent among nurses.” Statistics Canada

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RBC launched a new $5-million, five-year initiative, RBC Generate, aimed at advancing market, skills and finance solutions for Canadian agriculture. RBC Generate will support organizations that work with educational institutions, industry, governments and businesses in the areas of markets, skills and finance. The initiative will support applied learning opportunities and training. RBC will collaborate with the Sustainable Food Systems for Canada network, which includes 13 universities and colleges, to connect students to agri-innovation skills and training opportunities. Additionally, it will support upskilling RBC’s commercial relationship managers and finance specialists to better serve Canada’s farmers and the agricultural industry. RBC

The Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) received a new three-year, $9.4-million federal investment to create thousands of work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students across Canada and strengthen the national WIL ecosystem that connects employers, postsecondary institutions, and learners. Supported by the Government of Canada through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the WIL Partnerships 3.0 program will support the creation of 8,000 WIL opportunities – including co-ops, internships, industry projects and applied research projects – while engaging 2,500 private sector employers across the country. The program will bridge the gap between school and work by ensuring students develop in-demand skills and businesses gain access to emerging talent. BHER

A recent report by CBRE, an American commercial real estate services and investment company, said the pool of technology workers with AI skills in North America grew by more than 50 percent from mid-2024 to mid-2025, to 517,000 people. That talent is concentrated in the San Francisco Bay area, New York Metro, Seattle, Toronto and Washington, D.C. The top three of those cities accounted for 35 percent of the total. While New York added the most AI talent in absolute numbers – 20,000 people – Toronto and several other U.S. cities saw year-over-year growth of 75 percent or more. Canadian cities hold four of CBRE’s top spots for all North American tech talent, not just AI. Toronto (with an AI talent pool of 23,936 tech workers with AI skills) is ranked third, the Waterloo region seventh, Vancouver 10^th, and Ottawa 11^th. Edmonton and Quebec City also had significant gains. Canada had stronger tech talent growth (+5.9 percent) than the U.S. (+1.1. percent). While the upskilling of existing techies to be AI-proficient is creating high-paying jobs, the report suggests the boom is exacerbating pressing urban problems, notably affordable housing. CBRE

Student researcher interns supported by Mitacs – a not-for-profit innovation organization that connects businesses and researchers to drive collaboration – played a key role in helping Kitchener, Ont.-based FluidAI Medical launch a groundbreaking intelligent risk platform that can flag early on a broad range of post-operative complications, including sepsis, deep vein thrombosis, respiratory failure, bleeding, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia and more. Called Stream Care, the platform incorporates data from patient records, continuous vital sign monitors, wearable sensors and other medical devices to provide advanced risk assessments following colorectal surgery, bariatric surgery and surgery to treat benign and malignant diseases of the liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile duct. Mitacs funding, along support from the University of Waterloo, helped FluidAI’s team rapidly scale their technology from lab to market and deploy several clinical trials in Canada and globally, including a recent project with Providence Health Care in B.C., which is using the innovative system to remotely monitor patients recovering at home. Since its inception, FluidAI has hired 15 Mitacs student researchers with one accepting a full-time position. Now, as Fluid AI looks to expand in the U.S., the company continues to tap into the expertise of Mitacs interns to advance its research and development effort. Mya Simpson, a fourth-year biomedical engineering student at the University of Guelph, just completed an eight-month internship, where she was instrumental in setting up the precision testing required to secure U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for FluidAI’s flagship product, Origin, as a continuous pH monitor for early detection of post-surgical leaks. Mitacs

Skills training in Ontario is mired in chaos, Randall Denley said in an op-ed in the National Post. The Ford government has been starving the public community college system for years while touting the importance of skills training, he said. At the same time, the government has promised ever-increasing sums for private sector employers and private sector unions to do skills training. Since 2021, the Ford government has spent or committed $2.5 billion for skills training outside of the college system. “The government has shown more enthusiasm for training delivered by unions and corporations,” Denley said. In May, the government announced $1 billion over three years in addition to the $1.5 billion already committed to its Skills Development Fund. In comparison, the government provides about $1.5 billion a year to operate its 24 community colleges. National Post

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Ontario government’s selection process for skills development funding “was not fair, transparent or accountable:” Auditor-General

The Government of Ontario’s distribution of more than $1.3 billion in provincial funds for worker training was “not fair, transparent or accountable,” according to a performance audit by Ontario’s Auditor-General Shelley Spence.

Spence’s office examined part of the government’s Skills Development Fund Training Stream (SDF), a central program in Ontario’s workforce strategy.  

The SDF offers funding to employers, professionals, unions and industry or employer associations for innovative projects that address challenges to hiring, training or retaining workers, to drive Ontario’s growth. Ontario’s unemployment rate of seven percent in 2024 was the highest since 2014, except during the pandemic period.

More than $1.3 billion was provided to applicants over the first round of the SDF (2021 to 2025). In 2025, the Ontario government committed an additional $805 million to the SDF for three fiscal years starting in 2025/26.

The Auditor General’s audit report found that 549 applications, more than half (54 percent) of the applications approved for funding by the office of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development were rated “Poor,” “Low,” or “Medium” against stated program objectives and other program criteria.

These lower-ranked applications received $742 million, or 56 percent of total funding across the first five rounds of the fund.

Sixty-four low- and medium-ranked applications, selected by the Minister’s Office, received approximately $126 million in funding, had hired registered lobbyists to lobby the Ministry and/or Labour Minister David Piccini’s office on behalf of the applicants before they were selected and funded, according to the audit.

“Given that the Minister’s Office selects the applicants for funding and does not select only the applicants that have the highest overall score, this can create an appearance of real or potential preferential treatment by the Minister’s Office in its selection of applicants to fund,” the Auditor-General’s report says. “It is also not fair, transparent or accountable to those applying for funding or to the public.”

As well, 39 high-ranked applications that were selected by the Minister’s Office and received approximately $58 million in funding had also hired lobbyists.

There were 670 applications ranked “High” that were not selected for funding, with little rationale to explain why they were not chosen, the audit notes.

Similar programs in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador do not involve a Minister’s Office in the specific project-level funding decision. Instead, applicants are assessed against a defined set of evaluation criteria, and staff at these other province’s ministries approve the successful ones for funding.

In Rounds 1 and 2 of the SDF, the Ontario Labour Minister’s office did not share a documented reason for why it selected the 388 funded applications, which collectively received $479 million in funding, the audit found.

Starting in Round 3, the Minister’s Office documented reasons why it had selected individual applications. “At times, the reasons provided by the Minister’s Office conflicted with Ministry staff’s evaluation of the selected applications.”

No overall program-level key performance indicators (KPIs) exist for the SDF, the audit report points out. Instead, each applicant agrees to report on certain KPIs related to the project as part of the Transfer Payment Agreement it enters into with the Ministry.

“Project-level KPIs were not always met. This information was not made publicly available,” the audit report says.

The report confirmed that the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development had “sound processes for evaluating applications and monitoring the recipients.”

The Auditor-General’s report provided four recommendations, encompassing:

• Updating applications to put more weight on questions and criteria that are proven to be indicative of project performance.
• In future rounds of the SDF, selection should be made from the highest-scoring applications.
• The Minister’s Office should provide clarification to Ministry staff in exceptional cases where selections are made by the Minister’s Office that are not the highest-scoring applications.
• Ministry staff should approve Transfer Payment Agreement expenditures in alignment with the Ministry’s Delegation of Financial Authority and the SDF round’s application guidelines on eligible expenses.
• The Ministry should develop and implement program-level KPIs and associated targets for the SDF that cover all program objectives, and assess performance against targets at the end of each SDF round.
• The Ministry should report performance against program-level KPIs publicly after the completion of each SDF round.
• The Ministry should obtain and track details of consultants used to assist with SDF applicant submissions.
• The Ministry should share with its staff the details of consultants who assisted with SDF applications at each round, so staff can identify whether they have conflicts of interest with the consultant.
• The Ministry should track and assess risks associated with consultants as part of the application evaluation and performance monitoring of funded projects.

The government said it has accepted all of the audit’s recommendations, but that final funding decisions will remain up to the Labour Minister.

“This is money that should be going to support reliable and accountable training, in places like union-run skilled trades training, or reputable public colleges,” JP Hornick, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said in a statement.

But grants going to private employers and trade associations – including multi-million dollar “corporate handouts” – far outnumber those going to unions and union affiliates, he said.

“We need a stable, long-term investment in our colleges and meaningful skills training opportunities to weather this storm,” Hornick said. “Not one-off awards that could hang you out to dry the next year.” Office of the Auditor General of Ontario

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The fundamental requirement for success in artificial intelligence is talent, and Canada needs to drastically change its policies to jealously guard its homegrown talent, knowledge and intellectual property, Louis Têtu, executive chair of Montreal-headquartered Coveo Solutions Inc., said in an op-ed in the Financial Post. For more than two decades, Canadian technology policies have been driven by the “absurd idea” that job creation is the main economic driver, he said. This misses the fundamentals of the technology and knowledge economy revolution and the benefits to be gained by focusing on wealth and value creation from talent and IP. Canada’s education system has produced a potential gold mine in technology, automation and digital skills, yet our policy approach has been to “come and pay our miners well, and you can take the gold,” Têtu said. “To top it all off, we provide incentives to do it. This nonsense has to stop.” Canada should also take advantage of the current situation in the U.S. “make a generational play for talent” by offering fast-track-visas, research investments, tax incentives and career-matching incentives to recruit additional talent to Canada, he said. Financial Post

The Trump administration’s decision to impose a new $100,000 fee on new applicants for H1-B visas for skilled personnel seeking to work in the U.S. presents an opportunity for Canada to attract talented workers. “There is a golden opportunity to bring in the best and the brightest to Canada,” said Patrick Lor, managing partner with venture capital firm Panaches Venture. “Canada has the perfect opportunity to tap into this steam by working with the corporations . . . [and] allow the persons with H-1B visas to come in and work in the Canadian economy, Shankkar Aiyar, an economic analyst and author based in in India, said at the annual Global Business Conference in Banff. “One of our biggest competitors for talent is making an ‘unenforced error,’ so let’s go take advantage of that error and grab these people,” said Daniel Debow, founder of the Build Canada movement. Calgary Herald

A new venture studio that aims to create 25 high-growth Canadian-founded and-headquartered companies by 2030 is committed to “bringing Canadian talent home.” Rachel Zimmer, co-founder and CEO of Simple Ventures Inc., said: “We are coming together to issue a call to action, to bring Canadian talent home. To retain Canadian talent, we need to have great Canadian opportunities.” Simple Ventures, a cohort of technology executives and business leaders, have raised $15 million. The venture studio also recruits and appoints CEOs to helm the new companies and pairs businesses with successful Canadian founders who can offer advice. Financial Post

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Employment in Canada’s digital economy is outpacing general economy, but employers looking for specialized skills

Canada’s digital economy has experienced strong employment growth outpacing the general economy, according to a report from the not-for-profit Information and Communications Council (ICTC).

The ICT sector’s productivity is 45 percent above the national average, with digital economy employment rising by 51 percent from 2014 to 2024, says the report, Digital Economy Pulse: Productivity and Employment Trends in Canada.

This growth was even more evident in the latter half of the decade, with a 29-percent rise from 2019–2024.

In comparison, the general economy’s employment growth was considerably more modest, expanding by 15 percent over the 10-year period and seven percent in the last five years.

Productivity remains a defining strength: the ICT sector’s productivity reached $92.20 per hour in 2023, which is 45 percent above the national average.

Although productivity growth in Canada has been a longstanding concern, a year-to-year comparison of ICT sector productivity showed rises of 4.7 percent in 2022 and seven percent in 2023.

Companies in Canada’s digital economy report stronger revenue and greater confidence in future growth compared to firms in the general economy, the report says.

ICT sector employers report looking for mid- and senior-career staff with specialized skills and experience. The most in-demand ICT roles (a job that employers post frequently or struggle to fill) include software engineers and designers, IT business analysts, data scientists, computer and information systems managers, and cybersecurity specialists.

Canada’s digital economy employs 2.4 million individuals, accounting for 11.7 percent of the national workforce, with 1.1 million working directly in the ICT sector, according to the report.

The share of Canadian employment attributable to the digital economy has substantially increased since 2006, when it accounted for 8.8 percent of total employment.

Each ICT sector job “supports an additional 1.2 jobs within the general Canadian economy,” according to a recent analysis by Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

As the Canadian economy digitalizes, more Canadians with technological skills and interest in related roles are working in organizations outside of the ICT sector, taking positions as digital marketing specialists or software developers across many sectors (e.g. in postsecondary institutions).

The digital economy represents a significant portion of employment across Canadian provinces. Ontario is at the forefront, with 14 percent of Ontarians working in the digital economy (followed by British Columbia at 11.5 percent and Quebec at 11.2 percent).

Additionally, B.C. and Nova Scotia boast the fastest average annual employment growth rates in the digital economy, at 4.4 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively (followed by Ontario at 4.1 percent and Saskatchewan at four percent).

In terms of digital economy representation within their overall provincial economies, Ontario ranks highest and is followed by B.C., Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Alberta. This ranking highlights the presence of technology hubs, technology companies, innovation centres, and digital infrastructure in these provinces.

Interviewees in the ICT sector indicated that the demand for mid-career talent continues to grow, while entry-level workers face competition from mid-career professionals in the job market, even for positions with modest experience requirements.

Interviewees identified several cross-cutting skills as essential to technology roles:

• Ability to build useful tools, including using multiple programming languages to build practical solutions.
• Ability to design systems that automate routine tasks.
• Ability to manipulate and understand data.
• Ability to work in multiple cloud environments, including implementing cloud skills in real-life situations.
• Ability to work on both product and business teams.

Interviewees also identified human skills – sometimes called “soft” or “transferable” skills – they are looking for:

• Growth mindset, a quality of independent, creative thinking.
• Interest in leadership and people management.
• Collaborative problem solving.
• Emotional self-awareness and social perceptiveness, including open-mindedness and a lack of defensiveness.
• Storytelling and clear verbal and written communication.

Finding staff with the necessary skills or experience was the primary recruitment challenge (23.9 percent) faced by employer respondents.

Overall, employers also expressed a desire for early-career recruits to gain exposure to workplaces and develop essential soft skills.

In 2021, ICTC projected that, in an optimistic scenario, 2.3 million workers would be employed in Canada’s digital economy by 2025. That estimate has since been slightly exceeded: as of December 2024, there were 2.4 million Canadians employed in the digital economy.

Given the demand for higher levels of experience, Canada must place strategic emphasis on workforce development and retention strategies, the report says. “Creating a supportive and inclusive talent pipeline will be a key part of Canada’s broader strategies in the ICT sector, contributing to enhanced global competitiveness and helping to drive long-term prosperity.” ICTC

SECTOR SIGNALS

Creating the next generation of highly skilled workers is crucial to the success of Canada’s manufacturing sector

Training the next generation of skilled workers and upskilling the current workforce is key to keeping Canada’s manufacturing sector innovative and competitive, industry leaders say.

Tens of thousands of manufacturing workers who’ll be retiring over the next four years will need to be replaced with a more highly skilled workforce, including with operational knowledge of artificial intelligence, they said during a Canadian Science Policy Centre webinar on Canada’s innovation strategy for the advanced manufacturing sector.

“That workforce piece is a hinge point or a lever to do all the other things we need and want to do,” said Ryan Greer, senior vice-president, public affairs and national policy at Canadian Manufacturers & Explorers (CME).

“If we don’t have the people on the line operating the advanced technology, helping plants expand, and having access to those necessary talent pools, we’re going to continue to see what we see, which is reduced productivity and a number of challenges,” he said.

Half of CME’s activities is focused on supporting employer training, especially to help small and medium-sized businesses continue to make incremental improvements to their operations, Greer said. “There’s going to be room for even more employer-led training.”

“Chronic skills and R&D investment gaps are holding back our competitiveness,” said panel moderator Rhonda Barnet, senior advisor at Peterborough, Ont.-based AVIT Manufacturing, a precision manufacturing and fabrication firm. 

Those challenges are compounded by geopolitical shifts, U.S. tariffs that are raising costs, fractured supply chains, and Canadian firms lagging in adopting digital technologies, she said.

Manufacturing directly accounts for about 10 percent of Canada’s GDP and employs over 1.7 million people, or about 10 percent of Canada’s workforce, Barnet noted. The sector also supports millions more jobs indirectly.

However, Canada’s manufacturing sector invests about half the amount per worker compared with the U.S., and Canada’s labour productivity is almost 30 percent lower than the U.S.

Between January and August this year, Canada lost 58,000 manufacturing jobs, largely due to U.S. tariffs.

“We need to start talking about what are those core markets that we have a natural competitive advantage in,” said Amy MacLeod, vice-president, corporate communications, at Brampton, Ont.-based MDA Space.

“We need to invest in innovation, not just the product lines but the advanced manufacturing capacity and capability to deliver those product lines,” she said.

Government, industry and unions “need to collaborate on a worker-focused automation path,” including training in automation and understanding the benefits,” said Jay Judkowitz, director, product and engineering at Rockwell Automation’s Autonomous Mobile Robot Group.

Another challenge is that Canada’s immigration system favours young students and top executives, and much-need mid-career professionals have a hard time with the system, he said. The current system “doesn’t have a way of bringing in people who are in the prime of their career and actually doing the work and have experience with the technologies.”

Also, Canada’s postsecondary education system needs to modernize its curricula to include more education about robotics and AI, and incentivize entrepreneurship, Judkowtiz said. “We should be starting more companies in key areas like robotics and AI.”

“AI is redefining how we work and how we can stay competitive,” agreed Tara Craigen, manufacturing engineering director at General Motors’ Oshawa assembly plant.

Canada has international strengths in AI research and talent, she said. “I think we have a unique opportunity to really harness that technology, strengthen our operations, but also elevate our global standing.”

Canada needs clear industrial policy, more focus on commercialization, and easing of regulatory burden

In January this year, 94 percent of all of Canada’s steel exports were going to the U.S., representing 50 percent of domestic steel production worth $10 billion annually in sales, said

François Desmaris, vice-president, trade and industry affairs at the Canadian Steel Producers Association, which represents 23,000 direct jobs in the industry.

Canada historically is the largest exporter of steel to the U.S., while the U.S. is the largest exporter of steel to Canada, he said.

But that all changed in March when the Trump administration imposed a 25-percent tariff on imports of Canadian steel and then doubled the tariff to 50 percent in June.

Including all the indirect jobs supported by Canada’s steel industry, “it’s 100,000 jobs that are at risk because of losing access to the U.S. market,” Desmaris said.

Canada’s steel sector does have the manufacturing capacity – especially driven by innovation – to pivot from depending on the U.S. market to better serving the Canadian market, he noted.

However, Greer pointed out that there have been decades of integrating Canada’s and the U.S.’s manufacturing industries, especially in auto manufacturing but also other industries.

“We have built North-South supply chains. All our major transportation infrastructure goes North-South. It’s just one united manufacturing sector,” he said.

That means Canada’s ability to pivot to new domestic and international markets “is going to be a long journey,” and Canadians need moderate our expectations of what’s possible, Greer said.

Compounding the loss of the U.S. market, Canada’s manufacturing sector has an older workforce than all other sectors in the Canadian economy, he noted.

“We as a sector need to work closely with governments and among ourselves to help fill those vacancies with young Canadians, with new Canadians, with women who are traditionally quite under-represented in the sector,” Greer said.

MacLeod said Canada also needs “quick industrial policy that is clear and committed,” so the manufacturing sector knows where it can take risks that can be shared with government partners.

The federal government appears motivated to strengthen Canada’s defence security and sovereignty, she said. “That is the signal we need to invest.”

Policymakers also need to understand that there’s a difference between a Canadian-headquartered innovative company versus a foreign entity that sets up shop in Canada, MacLeod said. “Where the employment happens, the innovative R&D happens, is really critical to productivity and to de-risking the business decisions.”

Craigen said Canada also needs a sharper focus on commercialization and scaling up companies, not just on research and discovery. “I think we need that coordinated action and that sense of urgency or a need for speed.”

The current challenge for General Motors are the unknowns around the federal government’s adoption path for electric vehicles, she said. “Working together and getting some clarity on that path forward would be helpful.”

Greer noted that the federal government has over time consistently fallen short on easing regulatory burdens and red tape, especially in the manufacturing sector.

Government has been working on specific regulations in response to industry concerns, but in the meantime dozens or hundreds more regulations and compliance mechanisms have been introduced, he said.

“We’re not treating the underlying problem, which is how governments regulate in the first place,” he added.

More focus in needed on the cost-benefit analysis that underlies regulatory decisions, and more scrutiny, time and care be put into those decisions, Greer said.

“Advanced manufacturing is really at the heart of Canada’s future prosperity”

Canada being able to thrive on a post-industrial service economy is not only not sustainable, but it’s not resilient in the face of a changing geopolitical environment, Greer said.

“A strong manufacturing base is going to be critical to our ability to navigate an uncertain world, ensure that we can provide Canadians with the things that they need to live healthy and successful and fulfilling lives, and create a bunch of good jobs alongside it,” he said.

Despite the challenges facing Canada’s manufacturing sector, the panelists were positive about the sector’s future.

Canada has all the ingredients needed to be a major industrial player and global economic player if the country actually commits to doing it, Judkowtiz said.

Canada has space to grow, abundant natural resources and a world-class education system, he said. “We’ve got a strong history of being an industrial power that we can protect and expand.”

In addition, Canada has a very stable society and political system and ranks highly on every democracy index, he added.

Canada provides all Canadians with a social safety net and universal health care system, and entrepreneurship is much less risky here than in other countries, Judkowitz noted.

“In terms of selling our products competitively, particularly against low-cost competition, it’s a real benefit that our government is not a coercive force on our business,” he said. “This helps us create trust in our companies practices and policies around customer demands like data privacy and information protection.”

There are many things Canada can do to improve infrastructure, he added, such as more housing and schools, more medical schools and international recruitment of doctors, and expanded public transportation between population centres, financial centres and tech hubs.

But if Canada can promote and “sell” its whole system with all its benefits, “we can grow industry and the economy both rapidly and sustainably,” Judkowitz said.

Government is not responsible for making the manufacturing sector more productive, Craigen noted. “But it is responsible for setting the conditions in Canada and the clarity for us to grow and succeed.”

Craigen said the manufacturing sector is strongly investing in technology, including co-bots, self-driving robots, 3D printing to produce custom parts in-house, and predictive analytics to catch issues before equipment fails, avoiding down time.

Advanced manufacturing is really at the heart of Canada’s future prosperity and is a cornerstone of the country’s resilience, competitiveness and sustainability, Barnet said.

“So we need to protect it and we need to invest in its growth and success,” she said. “The message is clear here: If Canada invests boldly in skills, technology and collaboration, advanced manufacturing won’t just keep up with global change, it will lead it.” Canadian Science Policy Centre

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Finding and retaining highly skilled workers is an “urgent challenge” for Canada’s manufacturing sector

One of the most urgent challenges for Canadian manufacturers is finding and retaining highly skilled workers with the right mindset and work ethic, according to the 2025 Advanced Manufacturing Outlook Report.

The report also found that technologies like AI, machine learning, the industrial Internet of Things, computer vision and predictive analytics are driving big changes across the sector, but many businesses are still grappling with selecting the right tools and technologies to meet their needs without disrupting their operations.

“Today’s manufacturers are at a critical juncture,” said Hussam Malek, partner with national accounting firm MNP’s consulting services. “The good news is there’s a roadmap for the future, one that highlights the need to invest in their workforce, embrace new technologies, and build cultures that prioritize continuous improvement.”

The 2025 Advanced Manufacturing Outlook survey found that the majority of manufacturers are still very interested in using advanced technologies to become more efficient, explore production improvements, eliminate downtime and improve security measures against increasing threats.

The survey, led by Toronto-based Bramm Research, measured advanced manufacturing (including Industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 technology – the ongoing digital transformation of manufacturing through integrating smart technologies) engagement among 203 manufacturing business owners, senior executives and leaders.

Thirty-two percent of survey respondents said there’s been no change in their amount of intended spend on advanced manufacturing technologies compared with just 25 percent a year ago, “implying that more manufacturers are holding steady with spending.”

The key challenges seem to be funding and financing issues, a lack of skilled talent across the sector, the rising costs of goods, and a market averse to spending, according to the report.

Other hurdles include troubles integrating legacy technologies and the dearth of options available to manufacturers, cybersecurity concerns as threats evolve, and resistance to change.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents cited costs as a reason for not investing in technology, implying that an Industry 4.0 investment is jostling with other priorities for manufacturing leaders.

Nevertheless, 69 percent of companies have a plan and roadmap for Industry 4.0 adoption, a sizeable jump from the 47 percent who had a plan last year.

Many businesses have been affected by global trade volatility and have changed their planned spend on Industry 4.0 technologies, with 58 percent saying their planned spend has increased compared to 65 percent last year, and nine percent saying there’s been a decrease.

Of those currently applying Industry 4.0 technologies, 82 percent are using it to improve efficiency and productivity, suggesting a trend towards continued business operations in the current economy.

The C-suite executives raised their support for advanced technology tools to 77 percent from 72 percent the year prior.

Only three percent of respondents report that their operations have “no automation systems in place,” a change from last year’s eight percent.

More manufacturers are seeing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) as a business growth opportunity this year, with 90 percent recognizing its potential compared to 82 percent of respondents last year.

The leading uses of IIoT have changed somewhat as a result of economic headwinds and a volatile trade market, the report noted.

The top issue in using IIoT is still improving efficiency and productivity (46 percent), but manufacturers are now more interested in tracking materials and shop floor assets (34 percent), the visibility of data from across all manufacturing operations (34 percent), providing visibility into production processes (33 percent), analytics functionalities (29 percent), and improving maintenance functions (24 percent).

In the next three years, manufacturers plan to spend on robotics/automation (66 percent), artificial intelligence (51 percent and a +17% jump), data capturing at machine/ shopfloor (41 percent), enterprise resource management (41 percent), advanced analytics (39 percent), cybersecurity (38 percent) and cloud computing (36 percent).

The intended amount to spend on these technologies over the next three years has risen to $2.11 million, which is an increase and may speak to Industry 4.0’s importance for companies, the report said.

The most significant benefits seen by manufacturers have changed from years prior. The top cited benefits manufacturers have seen are an increased quality of product (47 percent), increased throughput (43 percent), reduced downtime (38 percent), lower cost of operation (37 percent), and reduced staff requirements (29 percent).

In previous years, a lower cost of operation and reduced downtime factored much higher.

The number of manufacturers not convinced of the business benefits of a technology investment still remains at 17 percent, with manufacturers citing cost concerns as the biggest impediment now (37 percent) for reasons for not investing.

Last year, the leading reason for not implementing new technologies was that there were difficulties in integrating advanced technologies in existing systems (37 percent), which still remains a persistent concern.

On the topic of cybersecurity, manufacturers continue to express growing levels of concern in relation to their businesses, with 79 percent rating themselves as highly concerned versus 21 percent not concerned.

Importantly, most manufacturers have experienced a cyber-attack at their company (68 percent), which is a slight decline from last year (74 percent).

The leading types of attacks have evolved, with phishing attacks leading (49 percent), followed by ransomware (19 percent), external cyberattacks (15 percent), a breach through a third-party vendor (13 percent) and a data breach or loss of personal or financial information (13 percent).

When it comes to strengthening security, 95 percent of manufacturers have taken some measures to protect themselves from cyber-attacks, including a cybersecurity strategy (62 percent), security infrastructure (61 percent), data privacy controls (54 percent), and a cybersecurity risk assessment/review (51 percent).

Only 24 percent of manufacturers feel they have taken all possible precautions to protect themselves from cyber-attacks, with 76 percent recognizing that they need to do more.

Overall, 72 percent of manufacturers in the survey have a data governance policy in place and 77 percent of manufacturers are concerned for the future of businesses that do not invest in advanced manufacturing technologies, a jump from 63 percent the year prior.

Manufacturers listed missing out on new business opportunities (55 percent), pricing pressures as a result of automation (53 percent), low margins (47 percent) and customer losses (32 percent), as their main concerns if they do not invest in Industry 4.0 technologies

“The future of advanced manufacturing depends on the seamless integration of People, Plant, and Process,” said Scott McNeil-Smith, vice-president, manufacturing sector performance at the Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC).

EMC continues to provide tailored guidance, industry-validated benchmarking, coaching and access to an extensive network of experts, along with student work placement programs and upskilling and training solutions, he said.

“As Canada’s manufacturing sector faces challenges such as labor shortages, rising costs, and the need for technological adoption, EMC remains dedicated to supporting manufacturers through this transformative journey,” McNeil-Smith said. MNP

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Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) recently launched the Canadian Manufacturing Data Dashboard, a modern, interactive resource that brings together timely, trusted data on Canada’s manufacturing sector in one place.

“Clear, accessible, up-to-date data is essential for informed decision-making,” Dennis Darby, president and CEO of CME, said in a statement. “The dashboard puts key manufacturing indicators at the fingertips of manufacturers, policymakers, and media, helping them quickly understand what’s changing and why.”

The dashboard provides current and historical data on employment, sales, GDP and merchandise trade by province and by sector in an intuitive interface that is free to use. Data are sourced from Statistics Canada and presented in interactive charts and tables that allow users to drill down by industry, region, and time period.

“Amid significant change and uncertainty in Canada’s manufacturing sector, the dashboard makes it easy to track new data releases, compare provinces and sectors, and get plain-language takeaways. Better access to data leads to better, faster decisions on hiring, investment and growth,” said Alan Arcand, Chief Economist at CME.

Each new release is accompanied by brief insights from CME’s chief economist, highlighting key takeaways and trends to help interpret the latest numbers.

Key features include:

• Core indicators for manufacturing: employment, sales, GDP and merchandise trade.
• Provincial and sectoral drilldowns with interactive visuals.
• Concise release summaries that spotlight what matters most.
• Organized by major releases, targeted for same-day updates.
• A summary page with headline figures across regions for a quick overview. CME

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