Category: Policy Shaping Collaborations

Categories
Carbon Economy Policy Shaping Collaborations

Outlook 2020: Positioning for Prosperity – a new BC Economy

Chapter 3 of the BC Business Council’s Outlook 2020 series happened last week in the midst of all the other numerous events scheduled.  As a result, I only caught one of the sessions, missing the panel discussion on Resourcing the Future:  BC’s Natural Advantage with Peter Woodbridge (who I am very impressed with – he authored the paper on the forest industry);  Randy Jespersen, President and CEO of Tersen; and Pierre Gratton, President and CEO of the Mining Association of BC.

The panel session that I did attend was called:  Servicing the Future:  Creativity’s Competitive Advantage in Changing Times. Moderated by Ida Goodreau, CEO of Lifelabs Medical Laboratory Services the session provided lots of good information about the potential of BC’s service sector.

In summary…

Michael Goldberg – Dean Emeritus, Sauder School of Business, UBC

  • There has been a dramatic growth in world exports of commercial services in the last couple of years;  US and EU are the dominant players – Canada is behind.  Trading in services grew 36.3% while trading in goods grew 26.8%.  And employment projections are for growth in the service sector.
  • Highlighted 10 exportable services – but health and education are key where we have large public expenditures and huge financial stress.
  • Keys to exporting tradeable services:  connectivity, high quality of life, education, health, public services and labour supply.
  • Challenges:  other regions are doing it too, can be slow to develop, goods matter and services don’t, trade barriers
  • Need to fund BC Stats to provide us with good information
  • See Mike’s paper at www.bcbc.com:  Building the Economic Base:  Tradeable Services.

Pascal Spothelfer – President and CEO of the BC Technology Industry Association

  • In 1984 the tech sector in BC was 1.8% of GDP and in 2007 it was 5.9% — employs 81,000 people.
  • Strengths:  entrepreneurial foundation, breadth (life sciences, IT, new media, clean tech)
  • Weaknesses:  small companies, poor export performance
  • The tech industry needs more medium size/large companies to train and feed the management pool;  exports are essential – we need to find ways to enable smaller companies to become exporters;  we need to understand the sector and develop growth strategies.
  • The keys are supporting education and building HR capacity.
  • S & T is important to dealing with climate change, energy supply and human health.
  • See Pascal’s paper at www.bcbc.com:  BC’s Advanced Technology Sector:  Reaching for the Next Level.

Chris Thomas, QC – Consultant to Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

  • Themes:  the Internet and Information Technology – the decoupling of services vis-à-vis geographic location; and, Infrastructure.
  • Singapore is “best in class” when it comes to tradeable services – they now operate over 28 ports around the world (YVR active in this area too).  The Singapore story is that they are short of water – so they have applied S & T to (1) improve catchment technology; (2) developed techniques for treating sewage; and (3) developing low energy desalination processes.  Singapore is now the world authority on “water” and provides consulting services globally.
  • We need to study our strengths and determine what we do well – and then unlock the economic opportunities – needs imagination and careful thought.
  • We can leverage our strong education and hard work.

Ron Burnett, President of Vice-Chancellor, Emily Carr University of Art and Design

  • It’s about creativity in the digital age – the creative economy and the cultural industries provide new opportunities.
  • The business value-add of design  — anecdotal examples – and we do use designed items and a designed world everyday.  MQ note:  where are the metrics on the value-add of design?  Research needed.
  • Opportunities in Health Design Engineering
  • Creative Sector – in 2007  $84.6B, 7.4% of GDP and 1.1 million jobs.
  • Opportunities in the new green economy.
  • See Ed Mansfield’s paper on:  the Creative Sector at www.bcbc.com.

MQ Reflections:

  • Am appreciative of the BCBC series – especially the papers that provide us with the key background information and context to understand where we are now and where we are headed from a future economic point of view.  Thank you BC Business Council.
  • Because I was going back and forth between the Outlook Series and the Resilient Cities conference, it was hard to miss the disconnect.   I was surprised at how the BCBC panels didn’t discuss the zero carbon or carbon-constrained economy and its opportunities.  Pascal mentioned some of the opportunities.   But there was no real discussion on how we are going to take advantage, in a creative and innovative way, of the change that is upon us .  Whereas at the Resilient Cities conference there were some really hard-nosed sessions on the economy, where it is going, what we could be and should be doing with some specific actions (next blog).
  • Need to get these two groups together – will be interesting to see the City of Vancouver’s Economic Development Plan which is coming soon.  Might be a good topic for a BCBC session.
Categories
Green/Sustainable Cities Policy Shaping Collaborations

A Bright Green Future

Yesterday at the Gaining Ground/Resilient Cities conference Mayor Gregor Robertson welcomed over 750 participants and took the opportunity to give them a sneak peek at Vancouver 2020:  A Bright Green Future, the 10-year plan which is the result of almost a year’s work by the Mayor’s Greenest City Action Team (GCAT).  The report includes 10 goals with specific targets for 2020.  The high level list is:

1.  Green Economy Capital

2.  Climate Leadership

3.  Green Buildings

4.  Green Mobility

5.  Zero WAste

6.  Easy Access to Nature

7.  Lighter Footprint

8.  Clean Water

9.  Clean Air

10.  Local Food.

I am particularly interested in the GCAT process — and that is what we’ll be discussing this afternoon at the Gaining Ground/Resilient Cities conference.  We are doing a workshop on GCAT — the “we” is Gord Price (SFU City Program and former City Councillor); Rob Safrata (CEO of Novex Couriers); Melina Scholefield (Director of Sustainability at City of Vancouver).  We’ll be reflecting on the process and what opportunities and challenges A Bright Green Future presents for us.

This is a very busy week — yesterday alone I attended parts of Gaining Ground (including a workshop on The Bold New Economy (future blog), the BC Business Council’s Chapter 3 of the Outlook 2020 series (future blog), the celebratory Board of Trade lunch for the CEO of the Canada Line, Jane Bird, and a reception hosted jointly by the UBC Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation and the University of Oregon’s Centre for Sustainable Business Practice — both of these centres are located in their respective business schools.  This week we are also hosting a delegation from Portland led by Mayor Sam Adams.  Yesterday we set up a session to share some of UBC’s sustainability initiatives (future blog).

And today promises to be equally busy.  To find the full GCAT report — here is the link:

http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/PDF/Vancouver%202020%20A%20Bright%20Green%20Future.pdf

Categories
Pacific Coast Collaboration Policy Shaping Collaborations Sauder Business School

Governors’ Global Climate Summit 2: the road to Copenhagen

The experience of LA is still overwhelmingly one of cars, cars and more cars.  On a previous trip, with Jane Bird, CEO of Canada Line leading the way, we took transit to the airport – actually it didn’t quite make it to the airport – there was a transfer to a shuttle bus from the light rail line.  So we have done quite a few things right in Vancouver.

The point is that LA is an interesting location to choose (for the second year in a row) for bringing together Governors from around the world to take action on climate change.  One of the key points is the emphasis on the power of the “sub-nationals” to make change and drag along all their federal counterparts.

I attended  Summit 1 last year in my capacity as Commissioner of the Pacific Coast Collaborative Commission (www.pacificcoastcollaborative.org).  This was a one-year Commission to lead B.C.’s participation in the Pacific Coast Collaborative. The Collaborative is a forum to develop agreements amongst the Premier of British Columbia and the Governors of the States of Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington. The agreements provide a framework for cooperative action through the sharing of information on best practices with the goal of positioning the region as the heart of innovation and sustainable living in the Pacific Century.  They focus on clean energy, regional transportation, research & innovation, emergency management and a sustainable regional economy.  Hopefully the Leaders will meet this Fall to sign-off on the agreements that were constructed over the past year.

This year, I was supported by the UBC Sauder Business School to extend my regional contacts and bring back the learning/experiences into Sauder and UBC.  The Summit is organized into plenaries and breakout sessions.  Both tended to have extensive panels – ensuring that everyone gets their time in the spotlight and their opportunity to talk about the challenges and actions being taken in the various regions.

Will report using a series of blogs around various sessions.  Perhaps the most powerful opening remarks were made by Dr. Jane Goodall (I missed Harrison Ford on the first day!)  She began by giving the call of the chimpanzee which was quite beautiful.  Mainly she commented on her recent experiences and the programs of her foundation.  In particular she has visited Greenland where the melting is profoundly changing the character and culture of the landscape and its people.  She is involved in a “Take Care” youth program and a  “Roots and Shoots” program – service learning – 8000 groups in 100 countries (www.rootsandshoots.org).  She also spoke passionately about the need for ecological audits being integrated as part of standard business procedure.

My favourite quote was one she attributed to an Inuit person:  something to the effect that there is no doubt that the ice is melting – how long will it take to melt the ice in the human heart?

Categories
Policy Shaping Collaborations Post Secondary Education Social Innovation

Social Innovation and Knowledge Mobility

For more SI2 info go to http://www.si2.ca/.

The afternoon brought a connection between social innovation and ecology — Frances Westley from the University of Waterloo talked about social and ecological resilience –and evoked the work of Buzz Holling, the famous UBC ecologist (even tho’ he left us awhile ago for southern climes).

Frances is the JW McConnell Chair in Social Innovation — she is heading up a Canada-wide initiative in social innovation, SiG (Social Innovation Generation), a cross-sectoral partnership to build capacity for social innovation in Canada funded by the J.W McConnell Family Foundation, University of Waterloo and the Ontario government.  She is a scholar in the area of social innovation — her most recent book  Getting to Maybe (Random House, 2006) focuses the dynamics of social innovation, and institutional entrepreneurship in complex adaptive systems.

Her presentation gave us a theoretical framework for understanding the engagement of vulnerable populations, building linked socio-ecological resilience and building capacity for social innovation.  Relevant for the “Resilient Cities” conferences coming up October 20 (www.gaininggroundsummit.com).

On Saturday morning we finished up with an Open Space session with groups tackling topics such as:

1.  How can we have broader investment in social innovation across Canada?

2.  The idea of a Canadian Drug Policy Consortium.

3.  How do we engage the broader community in social innovation?

4.  What should the research agenda be around social innovation?

5.   How do we tell the community story around the 2010 Olympics?

6.  How do we accelerate knowledge mobility around social innovation — and take action?

and others that I seem not to have noted!

In group 6 we actually ended up talking a lot about the idea of “social patents” — we even bought (for $14) the domain name www.socialpatents.com.  And we started a blog at:  https://socialpatents.wordpress.com/.  Desperate to take action and find some new ways to mobilize knowledge — to get it out of our institutions into the community.

Thanks again to Tom and Graham.  As usual, workshops like this provide good time for reflection and learning.  Can’t have enough of that.

Categories
Policy Shaping Collaborations Post Secondary Education

MQ Summary of BCBC Summit: Part 3

Innovation and BC’s 2020 Economy.  A great topic and well-covered by the third session — a panel discussion entitled:  Tomorrow’s Technology Today:  Innovation and BC’s 2020 Economy.

The final panel of the summit was well moderated by a pro — Dr. David Turpin, President of the University of Victoria.   Dr. Turpin started off the session with a succinct summary of the report that he and some colleagues authored for the BCBC on Universities and the Knowledge Economy (http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/2020_200909_Turpin.pdf) which emphasizes the important role that graduate students can play in the research team –especially their role in knowledge transfer.

Which led into comments from the founder of MITACS (Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems) Arvind Gupta — Dr. Math (those of you who read the Vancouver Sun will remember the great series on the importance of math — and Arvind’s approach to helping parents (and students) learn to love math).  But Arvind was on the panel to talk about what it takes to build a knowledge economy — basically knowledge workers.  And what we need to do to make BC attractive to the best possible students from around the globe.

MITACS operates a kind of “dating service” between research programs/students and industry.  It matches up graduate student expertise with identified problems from industry.  Money is matched and the outcome is often a job in the end for the student.  The Provincial government put in $10million into the internship program several years ago (Accelerate BC) and the program needs another infusion soon to keep these matches going.

Dr. Michael Gallagher, President and CEO of Westport Innovations Inc., talked about the vision of Westport to promote natural gas as an alternative fuel to oil.  Westport is one of BC’s poster companies for global success in terms of rate of growth and potential in the clean-tech landscape.  Michael emphasized three themes — the importance of commercialization of  research results, the challenges that face companies as they grow such as intellectual property issues and finding skilled employees,  and the importance of partnerships with other businesses (like Terasen (natural gas) and Cummins (engines).

The last panelist was Jayson Myers, President and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.  Jayson talked about the importance of the commercialization process — how do we generate something of economic value?  He talked about new solutions, new products, re-engineering existing businesses and differentiating our various products and services.   He also called for leadership from both business and government to tackle these challenges.

So now a plug for Chapter Three:  Positioning for Prosperity:  Commercial and Industrial Opportunities for a New BC Economy. Tuesday October 20 7:30am-12:15pm.  That is one busy week in Vancouver — Outlook 2020, the Gaining Ground conference, and various other activities!

Categories
Business Education Pacific Coast Collaboration Policy Shaping Collaborations

MQ Summary of BCBC Summit: Part 2

It’s all about people — how we educate them, value them and motivate them to learn, re-tool and learn again.  The second session at the Chapter Two Summit was entitled:  In Training for Prosperity:  Education and the Real Value of BC’s Human Capital. Tamara Vrooman, President and CEO of Vancity Credit Union was a superb moderator — smoothly linking the presentations and asking questions that drew out the essence of the issues and a focus on what can be done.  The panelists were Clyde Hertzman, Director of the Human Early Learning Program at UBC,  Judith Sayers, Strategic Advisor for the Hupacasath First Nation and Anibal Valente, Vice-President, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc.

Clyde gave us a passionate and fluent summary of ‘15 by 15‘ — a comprehensive policy framework for Early Human Capital Investment in BC.  15 by 15 refers to the BC government Strategic Plan commitment to lowering the provincial rate of early vulnerability to 15% by 2015.  Clyde presented six recommendations from his report (http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/2020_200909_Hertzman.pdf) but perhaps most useful was when Jock Finlayson asked from the floor — what are the top 3 to-do’s to get results in improving our early childhood education and development — which is an important investment to help us tackle the demographic challenges that Baxter talked about in terms of a skilled workforce.

1.  Support the government’s plan to institute full-day kindergarten as part of the strategy to provide “seamless transition for families as the parental leave period ends in order to make quality services for children age 19 month to kindergarten affordable and available…”

2.  Expand maternity and parental leave — we need to “support parents to synchronize caring and earning” —  we need a good balance of time and resources for in-family care and resources for strengthening the community service component.

3.  Keep following the development trajectory — make sure we monitor regularly so developmental challenges are caught early when they can be corrected relatively easily.

Next, Judith clearly outlined the challenges facing First Nations people and encouraged the business community to look to First Nations as an incredible pool of talent and human capital at a time when we see the general population aging and retiring.

Dan Perrin’s paper on First Nations and Economic Prosperity in the Coming Decade (http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/2020_200909_Perrin.pdf) contains two important messages:

1.  Aboriginal education achievement has to be a high priority in terms of maintaining some of our gains from the last few years and ramping up to achieve more gains, more quickly.

2.  Economic Success for First Nations “…has highlighted the importance of improved governance, self-determination and leadership for the economic and social development of Aboriginal communities.”  Information/assistance needs to get into the hands of First Nations as they get into business — various institutions and programs can help.

I have always imagined a wonderful scenario where the grade 9 aboriginal boy is bored silly by school, wants to quit and needs to have a sense of finding his way in the world.  Miraculously we have developed a program that will allow him to leave “traditional” schooling and move into the workplace where he learns on the job, is motivated by seeing what he can produce and at the end of the day gets credit for this work/learning in a diploma form and becomes a hugely productive and happy member of our workforce.  There has got to be a way to do this.  We are losing too much human capital because our system isn’t flexible enough to allow different kinds of learning.

And finally, Anibal from PCL outlined some of the programs that PCL has in place to respond to work force and skills training.  For example, this company has been proactive by creating the “PCL College of Construction”.  They have field personnel advisors who promote construction careers in high schools.  And they have made good use of the Provincial Nominee Program which assisted in bringing 86 skilled worked from other countries into our  BC workforce.

When asked about what the Business Council way forward might be, there was the following advice:

1.  Don’t wait for government or the competition to do it for you!

2.  Develop a Strategic Human Capital Plan — that coordinates levels of government and industry and educational institutions.

3.  Think about human development across the life course — from our first learnings as baby to our life long learning through to our senior years.

Whew — this post is too long.  Will make the one on Innovation shorter!

Categories
Policy Shaping Collaborations Post Secondary Education Sauder Business School

MQ Notes from BC Business Council Summit: Part 1

What will BC’s next economy look like? Chapter Two of the BC Business Council’s Outlook 2020 series is entitled: Foundations for the Future:  Innovation, Human Capital and BC’s Next Economy. Yesterday morning we were in the Pan Pacific “Crystal” Ballroom (you know the one with all the ceiling of solid little hanging crystal pendants — talk about a design problem — how to design a space for several hundreds of people that has good ventilation, views and a sense of place and energy about it — but that is another topic).

The “we” in this case is notable — need to look into the average age of participants but it seemed older than it should be for the topic of the future economy.  Maybe we need to have a Summit where we each invite a 20-something or a 30-something.

Anyway David Baxter — our favourite demographer — led off the morning.  In nutshell — baby boomers are entering their senior years and the pine beetle eating habits have changed the structure of our economy.  How are we going to pay our bills given our top-heavy age profile?  Interestingly enough while women still outlive men, that is gradually changing and eventually we’ll be housing more elderly couples.

A moment of levity came with a slide of a young boy holding a knife in an electric socket — this was in response to the question of “why” women live longer than men.  Baxter called it the “goofball” gene.

So how will we pay our bills?  Migration, work longer, work smarter and increase our productivity, increase employment in general and enlarge the availability of work.

Comes down to an import-export dilemma — we export fuel, natural gas, forest products, mineral products and services internationally.  All good.  But we import more than we export now — partly because we don’t grow our own food (also requires a longer discussion — not sure I buy all David’s arguments about why local food won’t work as part of the equation) so we need to import food products and of course manufactured goods are a large % of what we import.  As Baxter writes:  “…what we do, primarily, is to import manufactured products that we pay for by exporting natural resources (raw and processed).”

Interesting about our trading partners — US is number 1 ( 52% of our exports),  Japan number 2 (15%) — and South Korea (6%) (not China) is number 3.  So we need to pay attention to that.

All-in-all a good set-up for the panel on human capital and on innovation.  Blogs Part 2 and 3 coming up.

You can find David Baxter’s full report at: http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/2020_200909_Baxter.pdf

What I was left wondering is where does the new, green economy fit into this demographic/economic picture?  In the next little while we’ll be talking a lot about the green economy — the Province and the City are both setting out green economy agendas.  The Gaining Ground conference (www.gaininggroundsummit.com) has the green economy as an important theme.  If we think about it in import and export terms — what will the clean tech sector, for example, contribute?  And what policies need to be in place for this sector to flourish?

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