Workforce of the future requires addressing skills emergency now
Victoria Mancinelli, director of public relations, communications, marketing and strategic partnerships at LiUNA! Canada; Stephen Lucas, CEO, Mitacs and former deputy minister of Health Canada; Claudio Rojas, CEO of the National Angel Capital Organization spoke at the Coalition for a Better Future event moderated by CPAC PrimeTime Politics host Michael Serapio. | PHOTO: Melanie Shields
Canada needs to urgently overhaul its workforce training and support for innovation if it hopes to meet the demands of the fast-evolving 21st-century economy and this country’s “Build Canada” aspirations. This was the key point emphasized by panelists during a discussion on the future workforce at the Coalition for a Better Future’s Scorecard Reporting Event.
Stephen Lucas, CEO of Mitacs and former deputy minister at Health Canada, said this country is facing nothing less than a skills emergency. He said the challenge of developing youth who can power the economy of the future is well-known. “Yet we have a growing concern and real crisis in youth.”
Canada is just not doing enough workplace training to support employees, given the rapidly evolving workplace, including AI; this has to change, Lucas said.
He went on to say that to support youth, more than just co-op programs are needed. We also need youth training “that extends beyond traditional education and post-secondary institutions,” he commented. And businesses need to do a better job of working with today’s new workforce and the transformative skills they bring.
The urgency of the need to reverse current education programs and policies was underscored by the Coalition’s 2026 economic Scorecard report, which measures Canada’s progress on 21 economic indicators. The report, entitled “Time to Execute: Canada’s Crucible Moment,” found striking shortcomings in this area.
The “NEET” rate (those not in employment, education, or training) rose to 12 per cent in 2024. Youth unemployment hit 14.7 per cent in late 2025, the highest since 2010 outside of the pandemic.
Victoria Mancinelli, director of public relations, communications, marketing and strategic partnerships at LiUNA! Canada, said this country has “both the ambition and the execution coming into play” as it undertakes major economy-building projects.
But while that’s a good start, it will be crucial to deliver results to build the workforce of the future that meets the expected “pace and demand.”
As an example of the country being on the right track, she cited Ontario, which has an ambitious infrastructure investment plan coupled with “an historic $2.5-billion skills development fund.”
The fund is enabling a partnership with labour, post-secondary and even health-care institutions to invest in needed training for workers.
When it comes to future jobs and economic growth, Claudio Rojas, CEO of the National Angel Capital Organization, said it’s very important to support early-stage start-ups, which can deliver breakthroughs that power the innovative economy, like Shopify and WealthSimple.
Looking ahead, Canada needs to take advantage of “enabling technologies” that can help power future development and growth across the entire economy, he said.
“How do we empower these enabling technologies, AI, quantum and others that cut across all industries in order to drive greater efficiencies, greater economic growth across all industries, both traditional and those that are waiting for us in the future,” he said. “When we mobilize capital into companies at that startup phase, it's the entrepreneurs, it's the young people in this room that will create the jobs that we haven't conceived of yet,” Rojas told the audience at the Scorecard event at the University of Ottawa.
“When we mobilize capital into companies at that startup phase, it's the entrepreneurs, it's the young people in this room that will create the jobs that we haven't conceived of yet.”
Claudio Rojas, CEO of the National Angel Capital Organization
Training and recruitment needed to secure talent
Lucas noted that, given Canada’s $1 trillion in planned investments to rebuild and strengthen the country, much-improved training capacity will be crucial. For instance, a new cadre of talented employees will be needed just to meet the ambitious aims of the federal government’s Defence Industrial Strategy.
Mancinelli, who represents 160,000 construction and trades workers, raised the spectre of significant labour shortages in the years ahead. For example, she said, construction workers have shifted from the depressed residential housing industry in Toronto to the heavy civil sector on such projects as bridges and roads. As a result, when residential construction picks up again, there will be a lag in labour availability for that work.
Mancinelli said 21 per cent of construction workers will retire within seven years, so labour needs cannot be neglected. “In Ontario alone, there's a $200 billion infrastructure investment portfolio over the next 10 years” that residential projects will be up against when it comes to labour shortages.
“If government is not ensuring that labour and industry have a seat at the table when we're building out these massive infrastructure plans, we cannot possibly keep up with pace,” said Mancinelli. “We have to ensure workers are safe and trained. … That's going to be working in collaboration with both the development community and labour community. “
Panelists agreed that successful preparations for the future economy must be inclusive, including Indigenous people, immigrants and rural residents.
“We need to be sensitive to the fact … that we have entrepreneurs in all regions of the country,” Rojas said. “It’s important that we’re building companies in the communities, not driving the young people out of the communities as they look to find jobs elsewhere. … We are way too concentrated geographically in a small handful of cities.”
“The starting point has to be regional inclusivity” when it comes to economic policy, Rojas pointed out. “From there, how do we empower these enabling technologies, AI, quantum and others that cut across all industries in order to drive greater efficiencies, greater economic growth across all industries, both traditional and those that are waiting for us in the future?”
“If government is not ensuring that labour and industry have a seat at the table when we're building out these massive infrastructure plans, we cannot possibly keep up with pace.”
Victoria Mancinelli, director of public relations, communications, marketing and strategic partnerships, LiUNA! Canada
Mancinelli noted that we are seeing a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric right now, and Canadians need to be reminded that “immigrants won’t replace jobs; immigrants will help enhance local jobs.”
Without immigrant workers in the construction industry, Canada won’t be able to meet its huge rebuilding goals, she said. She added that the federal government needs to adjust its immigration policies to prioritize admitting workers with trade skills.
Lucas agreed that “we absolutely do need people coming into Canada,” but said we need to coordinate better to identify labour shortages in different sectors. He also highlighted the importance of improving the recognition of foreign credentials and removing “impediments to labour mobility” to enable people who come to Canada to work with the skills they bring.
“We should have ambition as well to attract the best talent to the world. Canadians who've studied abroad and perhaps worked abroad, and international students, and that's something to embrace, make sure we have a way of making it work,” said Lucas.
Aligning education with future workforce skills
The Coalition’s report says that Canada “must prioritize investments that future-proof entry-level jobs for young Canadians, ensuring they gain the skills and employment needed to remain resilient in the face of rapid advances in AI and automation, and to reap the rewards.”
Panelists agreed that the training from the education system needs to better align with the skills required by the private sector. For instance, Lucas said there needs to be better preparation for the innovation economy in post-secondary institutions, with better data to track if targets are being met.
“We need flexibility and openness to working with a rapidly evolving world and workplace needs, to complement degrees obtained in three, four years or longer,” said Lucas, suggesting solutions like microcredentials and investing in workplace training to be valued by employers, workers and students.
Mancinelli said there is still a stigma against building trades in schools. She said LiUNA Canada is promoting it “as a first-choice career path” with benefits, job stability, a secure retirement, and “a trade for life.”
Rojas explained that more connections between venture capital and start-up businesses emerging from post-secondary institutions are needed to spur early-stage entrepreneurship initiatives.
“That entrepreneurship, it enables people to breathe into existence jobs and economic opportunity that many would not have perceived.”
“We need flexibility and openness to working with a rapidly evolving world and workplace needs, to complement degrees obtained in three, four years or longer.”
Stephen Lucas, CEO, Mitacs
Lucas said that while there is a skills emergency, he is optimistic about the future. “There is still opportunity,” he said. “You can help define the future by thinking about how you marry that education, tailor training, working with employers who want to give you that experience on creating those new types of entry-level jobs and more advanced jobs that bring in those advanced skills.”
Rojas agreed, saying he is hopeful Canada’s entrepreneurship ecosystem will create the jobs of the future. “You have to build at all stages,” he said, explaining that if we don’t have early-stage support, we can’t get to where we want to go. “I'm hopeful that we're headed in the right direction, and that we're going to see sophisticated policy and announcements and strategies that understand the full range of entrepreneurship and how small companies go on to become the juggernauts, the massive companies of the future.”
