Canada now has “generational” opportunities – given the Trump administration’s actions – to make an unprecedented “brain gain,” upskill and reskill its workforce for the AI age, and scale high-potential businesses, says the head of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC).

“President Trump is dismantling every element of America’s competitive advantage, in my judgement,” Daniel Tisch Echevarría (photo at right), the OCC’s president and CEO, said during a Future Skills webinar on future skills for Canada’s prosperity.

“What historic breakthroughs will no longer happen in the U.S. in the years ahead, because of the way newcomers are being made to feel unwelcome, because of the starving of the education systems and the research systems?” he said.

Given what’s happening south of the border, Echevarría said, “There’s a brain gain opportunity for our country to attract the best and brightest talent, provided that they feel welcome here and that there’s opportunity for them here.”

There’s also an urgent need to keep our high-potential talent at home in Canada, he said. “We need to have them innovating here, we need to have them investing here.”

Canada also needs to upskill and reskill its existing talent for the AI age,” he added. “That means making upskilling and reskilling work in ways that are sensible for both the employer and the employee.”

“We need to ensure that our postsecondary education system – colleges, universities, Indigenous institutes – directly aligns with current and future industry needs,” Echevarría said. “We need to improve that connection and we need to ensure that it’s funded sustainably and guided by a strategy.”

The Ontario government has announced numerous long-term strategies in many areas, including energy, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, critical minerals, health care and human resources, he pointed out. “But where is the long-term talent pipeline strategy?”

Ontario needs a talent strategy that combines what’s required to develop talent with alignment with the needs of the labour market and development the skills required by a future workforce, Echevarría said.

“There’s a strong case to be made for alignment and de-siloing,” he said. “We need to think in a more integrated way, so that we don’t just approach education [and] skills development out on its own.”

Canada also needs to scale high-potential businesses, he noted. “That’s probably the biggest single thing we need to do to be competitive as a province and as a country.”

Along with a long-term talent pipeline strategy, Canada needs a competitive business environment, growth-enabled infrastructure, and healthy and sustainable communities, Echevarría said.

When it comes to better aligning postsecondary programs with industry’s needs, Jackie Pichette (photo at left), director of skills policy at RBC Thought Leadership, pointed to the organization’s recent report on postsecondary education.

According to the report, many colleges and universities are financially unstable, and the sector is often perceived as unresponsive to economic needs. Postsecondary institutions across Canada are closing programs and campuses and reducing staff to bring temporary budgetary relief.

Broader policy and funding changes are needed to ensure the sector’s sustainability, the report said.

“Changing higher education isn’t going to be possible without a new financial arrangement,” Pichette said.

Challenges include displaced workers, licensing foreign-educated workers, and training new workforce

Pari Johnston (photo at right), president and CEO of Colleges & Institutes Canada, pointed to a recent report by Deloitte’s Future of Canada Centre that said half-a-million workers will be needed to double housing starts in the country and build the public infrastructure planned by the federal government’s Major Projects Office.

 “And we have 270,000 folks retiring [from the Canadian workforce] at the same time,” Johnston noted.

“If we don’t reinvest in the core public training infrastructure in this country, then we will never meet the ambition that this government has set,” she said. “We are starving those institutions right now.”

“Colleges are the path to nation building in this country” when it comes to training Canada’s future workforce, Johnston said.

Ninety-five percent of Canadians, and 86 percent of First Nations, live within 50 kilometres of a college or a learning centre offering training, she said. “We are going to have to have a workforce strategy underpin the government’s major projects strategy.”

Colette Kaminsky (photo at right), senior assistant deputy minister, Employment and Social Development Canada, pointed out that there are over 100,000 more Canadians, year-over-year, on employment insurance claims this year compared with last year.

“It is worrisome – the displaced worker reality,” she said.

The federal government is focused on creating programs to provide such workers with “full wraparound support,” including human resources to help them succeed, Kaminsky said.

Budget 2025 allocated $382.9 million over five years, plus ongoing funding, for a new Workforce Alliances and Investment Fund to tackle labour shortages, along with a Workforce Innovation Fund for regional skills-building projects in key growth areas.

Ottawa is working with the provinces on the ability to upskill people through work-sharing agreements, Kaminsky said. “That is allowing companies to think about using EI-funded training supports to pivot their existing workforce, multi-skill their workforce, upskill their workforce, to pivot to the new transition.”

In one profession alone, Canada is projected to have a shortage of more than 28,000 nurses by 2030, according to a Health Canada report early this year on Canada’s Future Health workforce.

Yet the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare union has identified about 3,300 internationally educated nurses just in Ontario who want to become nurses but face challenges becoming licensed, said Tyler Downey (photo at left), president of SEIU Healthcare, which represents 72,000 frontline health care workers in Ontario.

“The way in which career progressions happen in the workplace is very minimal,” he said.

At the same time, he noted, the No. 1 question that often poorly paid care workers calling the union’s call centre for assistance is: “How do I access food?” About one-third of the union’s members come from the Philippines.

Agency workers from third-party staffing agencies come in to fill temporary shifts, but often aren’t prepared or skilled enough to do the work on the floor, Downey said.

To address the problem, SEIU Healthcare created a “digital hiring hall,” a “WorkersFirst” digital platform that employers can use to find and sign service agreements with qualified workers.

The Ontario government invested $2 million in the union’s hiring hall platform, “because we’re making it easier for employers, more cost-effective to the system, [and producing] better-trained workers,” Downey said.

The union has also created a career pathway that allows the workers to maintain their work-life balance and their ability to do their education in a timely way, and get them licensed in a quicker, more expedient way, he said.

Earlier this year, SEIU Healthcare acquired a career college where the union can provide vocational training, including personal support working training.

“We’re making real strides and real differences in the lives of our members,” Downey said.

New college-driven initiative to provide skills training for Canada’s military

The federal government has made commitments to recruit 13,000 new military personnel and establish BOREALIS – the Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Science 

In response, Johnston said Colleges & Institutes Canada (CICan) is convening a coalition of member institutions interested in leading sector action on these historic investments in military capacity and defence infrastructure. Through the coalition, CICan said it will:

• Position military-connected institutions as a vital partner in Canada’s defence ecosystem, showcasing the essential role of colleges and institutes in addressing defence challenges and supporting military-connected learners.
• Develop scalable, targeted solutions that demonstrate the value and impact of colleges in workforce development for the defence sector.
• Serve as the single point of access for federal partners, including National Defence, Veterans Affairs Canada, the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Canadian Navy, Defence Research and Development Canada, and the new BOREALIS – to access a network of institutions supporting defence preparedness and innovation.

The goals of the new national network are:

• In Workforce Readiness, supporting both career transitions, upskilling and reskilling of active Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel, veterans and their families for all military occupations that have a civilian equivalent – and for those in civilian occupations looking to transition to military careers.
• In Military and Dual-Use Technologies, by partnering with branches of the CAF to develop innovative and practical applied research solutions to defence challenges.
• In Industrial Support, by working with industry partners to strengthen Canada’s defence manufacturing sector with high-quality training and innovation to meet military demand.
• In Community Building, enhancing capacity to support military-connected learners, veterans, and their families.

Johnston said Colleges & Institutes Canada wants to launch the new network at scale.

“I’d love to see a national partnership with the Royal Canadian Navy to develop curricula across our membership,” she said.

Plans include creating a prior learning and skills assessment recognition tool, and an online platform so that all of the network’s programs are visible to military members and “can be seen at one glance.”

Canada doesn’t have the “luxury” anymore for governments, provinces and other Canadian organizations to compete with each other within the country, and everyone needs to collaborate, Johnston said. “The way we will succeed is if ambition is married up with alignment.”

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