WALTER GORDON SYMPOSIUM 2019 Canada 2050: Visions of the Future Presented with the generous support of WALTER GORDON SYMPOSIUM 2019 #wgs2019 Canada 2050: Visions of the Future Acknowledgement of Traditional Lands We would like to acknowledge this sacred land upon which the University of Toronto operates. It has been a site of human activity for over 15,000 years. In this time, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Tkaronto–the place in the water where the trees are standing–is in the Dish-With-One-Spoon territory. The Dish-With-One-Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee that binds them to share and protect the land. As with other traditional agreements between the First Peoples of this area, the treaty is marked with a wampum belt. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers, have been invited into this treaty alongside the original stewards of this land in the spirit of peace, friendship, and respect. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still home to many Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island and we are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and play in this community. 1 WALTER GORDON SYMPOSIUM 2019 #wgs2019 Canada 2050: Visions of the Future A Note from the Organizing Committee We would like to thank you for your interest in the 2019 Walter Gordon Symposium. We hope you are as excited as we are to hear from the amazing journalists, academics, and thought leaders here today who have graciously agreed to share their knowledge and ideas on a number of important topics related to this year’s theme: Canada 2050: Visions of the Future. In addition to today’s fantastic panelists, this event would not have been possible without the generous support of Massey College and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. In particular, we would like to thank Dr. Carolyn Tuohy and Dr. Tom Axworthy for their guidance, trust and counsel in planning this event. We also thank the Honourable Hugh Segal, Principal of Massey College, for his support and advice throughout this process. Finally, we would like to thank the countless staff at both institutions who have contributed their time and effort to making this event a success. We hope that you enjoy today’s event and that the knowledge and perspectives that are presented may help to inform your own thinking on what the Canada of the future might look like. Sincerely, The 2018-2019 Walter Gordon Symposium Organizing Committee: Saif Alnuweiri (MPP) Arpit Kumar (MPP) Sharly Chan (MI) Ryan Phillips (MPP) Maddy DeWelles (MA, Education) Julian Posada (PhD, Information) Francesco Ducci (SJD) Zoe Sebastien (JD) Jamie Duncan (MI) Keshna Sood (PhD, Medicine) Charlie Katrycz (PhD, Enginneering) Anjum Sultana (MPH) Nuri Kim (MPP) Nicole Winger (MPP) 2 WALTER GORDON SYMPOSIUM 2019 #wgs2019 Canada 2050: Visions of the Future About the Walter Gordon Symposium The Walter Gordon Symposium is named after the Honourable Walter Gordon, who was Minister of Finance and President of the Privy Council under the government of Lester B. Pearson. The series, which began in 1990 under the leadership of then head of the College, Ann Saddlemyer, was designed to present annually a topic of immediate Canadian significance to an interested audience drawn from the worlds of academia, business, and government. The series has discussed important issues such as the future of public broadcasting, the possibility of a North American culture, the state of feminism, the possibility of replacing welfare with guaranteed basic income, the looming shape of Canadian economic planning set against global integration, and the changing nature of eco-politics. The series is sponsored by Massey College and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. The Symposium is organized by a team of students from Massey College and the Munk School. For more information, visit our website at: https://www. waltergordonsymposium.com. Walter Gordon Symposium 2019 This year’s Symposium is entitled Canada 2050: Visions of the Future. What will Canada look like in 2050 and how do we want it to look? Will AI play a larger role in business and in Canada’s economy? What might future urban cities look like and how large will Canada’s population be? The policy decisions we make now will affect crucial issues such as inclusiveness, diversity and growth for years to come and will shape Canada’s future. For this reason, it is important that we take the time to reflect on how far Canada has come, and think about the direction we want Canada to go. The lunch-time Keynote Address will be given by Doug Saunders and the Symposium will feature four panels: Canada’s Future Population, The Future of Canada’s Cities, The Future of Canada’s Resources, and The Future of Work in Canada. 3 WALTER GORDON SYMPOSIUM 2019 #wgs2019 Canada 2050: Visions of the Future Agenda Friday, March 1st, 2019 8:00 am Registration and Breakfast 8:45 am Opening Remarks 9:00 am - 10:15 am Canada’s Future Population 10:15 am - 11:30 pm The Future of Canada’s Cities 11:30 am – 12:15 pm Lunch 12:15 pm – 1:30 pm Keynote: Doug Saunders 1:30 pm - 2:45 pm The Future of Canada’s Resources 2:45 pm - 4:00 pm The Future of Work in Canada 4:00 pm Closing Remarks 4 WALTER GORDON SYMPOSIUM 2019 #wgs2019 Canada 2050: Visions of the Future Morning Panels Canada’s Future Population What will Canada’s population look like in 2050? Will the country be experiencing a marked decrease in its population, or will it have exceeded demographic projections with a higher intake of immigrants? What will Canada look like in light of the doubling of its senior population, and how will newcomers be integrated into Canadian society? This panel aims to explore what factors inform policy decisions related to Canada’s population growth and immigration policies. It also aims to examine the ways in which population growth and immigration policies impact other areas of Canadian society such as the labour force, the economy and education. Moderator: Phil Triadafilopoulos Panelists: Robert Steiner, Charles Foran, William B. P. Robson, and Harry Malcolmson The Future of Canada’s Cities Canada’s cities are re-defining themselves. From innovative and eco-friendly building strategies to the development of “smart” infrastructure that can be monitored and controlled remotely, Canada has sought to place itself at the forefront of urban futures. These trends have given rise to a great deal of concern over what the future will hold: will future technological changes improve the quality of life in Canada, or usher in a new age of surveillance, a lack of privacy, and inequality? Panelists will comment on the trajectory of Canadian urban development, offering their perspectives on maximizing the benefits of urban technology and on planning for a diverse, growing urban population. Moderator: Stefan Novakovic Panelists: Nasma Ahmed, Gregg Lintern, and Bianca Wylie 5 WALTER GORDON SYMPOSIUM 2019 #wgs2019 Canada 2050: Visions of the Future Keynote Address: Doug Saunders The Keynote from Doug Saunders will address the crucial need to plan for a larger Canada, the consequences of Canada’s past failure to do so and the benefits that can be obtained by embracing greater population density. Doug Saunders is an author and journalist of Canadian and British citizenship. He is the author of the books Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World (2011), The Myth of the Muslim Tide (2012) and Maximum Canada (2017) and is the international-affairs columnist for the Canadian national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. He served as the paper’s London-based European bureau chief for a decade, after having run the paper’s Los Angeles bureau, and has written extensively from East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, the Middle East and North Africa. He writes a weekly column devoted to the larger themes and intellectual concepts behind international news, and has won the National Newspaper Award, Canada’s counterpart to the Pulitzer Prize, on five occasions, as well as the Schelling Prize for Architectural Theory, the Donner Prize and the National Library of China Wenjin Book Award. 6 WALTER GORDON SYMPOSIUM 2019 #wgs2019 Canada 2050: Visions of the Future Afternoon Panels The Future of Canada’s Resources How should we think about Canada’s relationship to its natural resources and how should we think about Canada’s environment? This panel explores Canada’s current patterns of production and consumption, and asks how current policy decisions might affect Canada’s relationship to resources in the future. In particular, this panel examines current trends of consumption of Canada’s natural resources such as wind energy, forestry, mining, fishing, agriculture, and oil use. This panel also seeks to examine what the future might look like in terms of Canada’s consumption of natural resources, which resources might be preferred in the future, and what this might mean for Canada’s environment, and its citizens. Moderator: Shawn McCarthy Panelists: Tom Rand, Marla Orenstein, and Jean Paul Gladu The Future of Work in Canada This panel looks at current trends in the transformation of work and discusses what the workforce and workplace in Canada might be like in 2050. The forces shaping the future of work, both in Canada and around the world, are manifold. These include rapid technological developments and the prospect of machines replacing humans; globalization and the dislocations created by international trade; domestic considerations of diversity and fairness, as well as issues of inequality in a fast-changing world.