The future of work QUARTERLY MAGAZINE MARCH 2018 WHAT’S THE REAL VALUE OF A 1000 SQ FT CONDO IN VANCOUVER? IC-designated appraisers are Canada’s real estate Avaluation experts. We apply proven, professional standards to keep the value of real estate grounded in reality. Learn more about AIC-designated appraisers and the valuable role we play in Canada’s economy by visiting the Appraisal Institute of Canada online. CONTENTS MARCH 2018 | THE FUTURE OF WORK Looking at a world without jobs Interest grows in a guaranteed income 01 The jobs of tomorrow Liberals pour billions into innovation in effort 03 to prepare youth for the future of work Diversity must be at core of any digital skills plank 06 An iPolitics Q&A with Jennifer Flanagan, Actua President and CEO This time they mean it Shortage? What labour shortage? Driving digital transformation of government 29 An iPolitics Q&A with Niki Ashton 19 CONTENTS EDITOR & PUBLISHER James Baxter Time is now to press ahead EDITORS on health innovation 11 Catharine Fulton An iPolitics Q&A Emily Kennedy Holly Lake with Senator Art Eggleton Peter Robb WRITERS Beatrice Britneff Janice Dickson Kyle Duggan Rural robots Kelsey Johnson 13 Leslie MacKinnon Automation gets a warm Kathryn May welcome on the farm Kady O’Malley Kirsten Smith Sarah Turnbull Marieke Walsh CONTRIBUTORS Paul Adams Ann-Louise Davidson The Patent problem Susan Delacourt Can we solve the mystery of stagnant 16 Rachel Gilmore intellectual property applications in PHOTOGRAPHER Canada? Matthew Usherwood DIGITAL & DESIGN Sarah West BUSINESS TEAM John Butterfield Job: Engaging Canada’s Sally Douglas 22 Emily Emberson First Nations Callie Sanderson Investing in the Indigenous workforce Yamina Tsalamlal a potential boon for Canada’s economy IPOLITICSINTEL Danelia B. Bolivar (Executive Editor) Marguerite Marlin (Deputy Editor) Kirby Bucciero Irina Cristescu Felixe Denson Cartoon Gallery James Gragg-Reilly Drawn by human hand 25 Codie Mitchell Sarah Nixon Charlie Pinkerton Curtis Rafter Vincent Rocheleau Olivia da Silva Kevin Smith Anti-social 201-17 York Street Twitter @journalism #badnews Ottawa, ON K1N 5S7 Canada 33 Office: 613-789-2772 ipolitics.ca | [email protected] iPolitics is Canada’s top digital source for independent, up-to-the-minute coverage of Canadian politics and the business of government. Looking at a world without jobs Interest grows in a guaranteed income BY SUSAN DELACOURT hat if the future of work means no work at all — at to see things that way. Clearly, in the United States, the least in the traditional sense? tech industry is ahead of the government on studying basic income. WAn employment-free future means lots of time for leisure and shopping, but it also means no paycheque. And Here in Canada, the idea of a basic income is also gaining that has futurists — in the private and public sector — some momentum at the provincial level — notably a thinking anew of a basic, guaranteed income. major pilot project in Ontario. Launched last year, the program is rolling out in Hamilton, Brantford, Brant County, The idea has been gathering force among the giants of the tech industry in the United States, such as Tesla Lindsay and Thunder Bay, with participants receiving up founder Elon Musk and Sam Altman, the president of the to about $17,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples. Y-Combinator firm that launched Reddit, Dropbox and Early indications are that the program is working well for Airbnb. participants — “from barely surviving to thriving,” as one Toronto Star story put it in a progress report in March. “I think we’ll end up doing universal basic income,” Musk said at the 2017 World Government Summit in Dubai. “It’s Still, despite the many links between Liberals in Ottawa and going to be necessary.” Queen’s Park, this is not one of the ideas being shared by federal and provincial Grits. No one would say it’s on the Musk sees basic income as necessary simply because radar of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and jobs are going to be lost to robots, artificial intelligence there was absolutely no mention of it in the federal budget. and other forms of automation. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, perhaps more optimistically, sees basic income But it is alive at the provincial level. In addition to Ontario’s as a way to give future workers the “freedom to fail.” advances down the road, British Columbia has set aside $4 million to pursue the idea and Quebec has an advisory “Now it’s our time to define a new social contract for committee studying basic income too. our generation,” Zuckerberg said in his commencement address at Harvard last year. “We should explore ideas like And, interestingly, the policy is will land on the floor of the universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try Liberals’ biennial convention in Halifax in April. In fact, it’s a new things.” return engagement in that venue. The last time the federal Liberals gathered for a policy convention — in Winnipeg, Altman, for his part, is even doing his bit to get the ball rolling on a basic income, with Y-Combinator launching a two years ago — a majority of grassroots attendees voted large-scale test project last year in two U.S. states. About in favour of the Trudeau government pursuing the idea. 3,000 individuals are being randomly selected to take part: The 2016 resolution stated: “That the Liberal Party of 1,000 receiving $1,000 per month for up to five years, while Canada, in consultation with the provinces, develop a 2,000 are receiving $50 per month. poverty reduction strategy aimed at providing a minimum Altman has been casting this plan as one that unites guaranteed income.” liberals and conservatives — progressive policy dressed This year’s resolution for the Halifax is slightly less up as a capitalist proposition. “What I would propose is ambitious, talking generally about directing the a model like a company where you get a share in U.S. government to review progress and work toward eventual Inc.,” Altman said in an interview late last year. “And then, implementation of basic income at the federal level. instead of getting a fixed fee, you get a percentage of the GDP every year.” So far, Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal minister of Families, U.S. President Donald Trump, though a businessman and Children and Social Services, has taken an approach to basic a staunch capitalist, would probably take some persuading income that amounts to little more than benign curiosity. MARCH 2018 IPOLITICS MAGAZINE 1 LOOKING AT A WORLD WITHOUT JOBS, INTEREST GROWS IN A GUARANTEED INCOME Emilie Gauduchon, Duclos’ press secretary, said her boss could turn out to be beta testing for the federal Liberals — is more preoccupied with fulfilling commitments in the in policy and political terms. Liberals’ 2015 election platform and his own mandate letter. Wynne’s experiment in a limited form of pharmacare, “Minister Duclos mentioned on a few occasions that he for instance — free drugs for Ontarians under 25 — has is following the development of basic income initiatives been picked up for study by the Trudeau government, in different provinces. Right now, his priorities are in his with Wynne’s health minister, Eric Hoskins, leaving his mandate letter and basic income is not in it,” Gauduchon provincial job to lead the federal study. Could the same said in an emailed response to my queries. thing happen with basic income? “Minister Duclos said that if provinces need some data from Like Altman, many advocates of basic income see the the government of Canada to implement these pilots, we idea as a cross-partisan one — neither right nor left. The could help them, but there is no plan to establish a federal Ontario Liberal government, we’ll remember, launched its pilot program.” program largely on the advice of a long-time Progressive Neither the government nor the minister feel any duty to Conservative, Hugh Segal. act on resolutions from Winnipeg or Halifax, she added. So maybe this is an idea whose time will come, and maybe “As you know, party policies are taken in consideration soon. With provinces such as Ontario blazing a trail, by the government but they are not automatically grassroots federal Liberals putting the idea into policy governmental policies. ... The basic income wasn’t part of resolutions at conventions and tech giants embracing the party platform during the last election and the next basic income, the Trudeau Liberals could be feeling election platform isn’t decided yet.” enough momentum to put it in an election platform. The operative word in that last sentence may be “yet.” And if the future of work includes less work, that could What’s been going on in Ontario, with various policy be a powerful argument to make basic income a future innovations from Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government, election issue too. Isn’t it time for a review of our tax system? Ask CPA Canada. cpacanada.ca/federalbudget 2 IPOLITICS MAGAZINE MARCH 2018 18-0109 CPA-GR iPolitics Ad Mar18_EN.indd 1 2018-02-15 10:07 AM Isn’t it time for a review of our tax system? THE JOBS OF TOMORROW Liberals pour billions into innovation in effort Ask CPA Canada. to prepare youth for the future of work BY SARAH TURNBULL cpacanada.ca/federalbudget Photo: Actua MARCH 2018 IPOLITICS MAGAZINE 3 18-0109 CPA-GR iPolitics Ad Mar18_EN.indd 1 2018-02-15 10:07 AM THE JOBS OF TOMORROW Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development announces proposals under the $950-million Innovation Superclusters Initiative in Ottawa, Thursday, February 15, 2018.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand he way we work in Canada is being disputed daily, emphasis on increasing the resources and infrastructure sometimes hourly.