As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, it has become well-understood that the economic consequences of COVID-19 lockdowns have been harsher for lower-wage workers. While higher-wage workers are more likely to be unaffected by the pandemic, as they are able to work remotely, hundreds of thousands of service sector workers have…

As fall approaches, COVID-19 continues to pose serious health and policy challenges for Canadians. While daily new infections are not as high as during the peak in May, they are up from a low in July. …

Unadjusted employment in Canada grew by about 220,000 from July to August, or 1.2%, according to Statistics Canada. Employment tends to rise in summer due to sectors like construction and agriculture. After adjusting for this seasonality so that all months in a year are comparable, employment in August was about…

Canada’s newest GDP data reveals a promising trend — On Friday, Statistics Canada released new sector-level Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for June 2020. After much speculation, this data offers an idea of how Canada’s recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis is likely to unfold. In short, the resumption of economic activity has been faster than many analysts expected. This…

Canada’s Pacific melting pot province of British Columbia is rich in natural beauty, resources, and talent. Compared to Ontario and Quebec in particular, the province has so far managed to avoid a large number of COVID-19 infections and has suffered less economic damage as a result. Credit may be due…

Reassessing previous forecasts — One year ago, ICTC released the report A Digital Future for Alberta: An Analysis of Digital Occupations in Alberta’s High-Growth Sectors. This report analyzed and forecast employment in key digital occupations across Alberta’s economy during a period where economic diversification was beginning to take shape. Analysis encompassed many areas, including…

Reflections from a Canadian in France — Just a month ago, I was happily presenting ICTC research on smart mobility — one of ICTC’s smart city priority areas — at the MOVE ‘Mobility Re-imagined’ 2020 Conference in London, UK. The conference brought together more than 10,000 attendees from around the world. Today, large conferences like these are…

Insights Gained and Lessons Learned — The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) was recently invited to participate in a roundtable discussion hosted by the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Big Data Initiative. As members of the ICTC research & policy team currently completing research on 5G and its use-cases across industry lines, my colleague Rosina Hamoni…

Whether you love it, hate it, rely on it, or actively work around using it, many Canadians have few illusions about the economic importance of natural resources like oil for our national economy. …