STEM gap not linked to poor productivity: CCA report

A new Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) report has confirmed what some economists have been saying for years: don't blame the country's poor innovation and productivity record on a shortage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills.

The expert panel report, commissioned by the Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada, found little evidence to support what has almost become conventional wisdom within government and industry. Speaking to a Canada-US business in November 2012, prime minister Stephen Harper said producing more skilled workers, including engineers and scientists, is "the biggest challenge our country faces".

But the evidence — or lack thereof — paints a different picture. A 2014 report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer suggested that Canada has neither a national labour shortage nor skills mismatch. Senior economists at TD Bank reached the same conclusion in a 2013 report (Jobs in Canada: Where, What and For Whom?) that found claims of a wide-spread skills shortage in Canada "exaggerated".

The CCA appears to concur. "STEM skills have been advanced as central to innovation and productivity growth, which are in turn necessary for improving standards of living. While the general reasons behind this logic are clear, the Panel had difficulty finding direct and robust evidence that STEM skills are unique in this regard," states the report, entitled Some Assembly Required: STEM Skills and Canada's Economic Productivity.

Instead, the CCA report links improved productivity to working smarter. This requires education that focuses at an early age on fundamental skills such as reasoning, problem solving, technological proficiency and numeracy that are needed for more than just STEM-related jobs.

That isn't to say STEM skills aren't important. Expert panel chair and former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge stresses that "high-quality investments in STEM skills — in both early education and in more advanced training"— are one of several factors that can improve Canadian innovation, productivity and economic growth.

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