Leadership Perspectives The Conference Board of Canada

The April 2024 federal budget is like game seven of a Stanley Cup playoff run for economists.  It’s a critical time when decisions on spending and taxation are made that can help or hinder our economic direction.  

In this special episode we call on various members of The Conference Board of Canada’s economic forecasting unit to help make sense of the key announcements in the budget.  Join us to hear their take on the impacts of federal budget 2024.

Everyone from the Bank of Canada to leading economists from across the country are discussing what’s at the root of Canada’s productivity challenges.  
 To help us sort through the discussion, I’m joined this episode by the Conference Board of Canada’s Director of Economic Research Tony Bonen and the Founder and Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) Andrew Sharpe.

We discuss how we should understand productivity and why it’s important for it to improve.  Near the end of the episode we hear about new research from the Conference Board of Canada linking skills to our productivity challenges.  We’ll hear that Tony thinks this is a promising new avenue—in part because there are many levers that the government can use to support skills development.

About our guests:

Tony Bonen is the Director of Economic Research at The Conference Board of Canada. In this role Tony provides strategic leadership to a dynamic team producing insightful custom analyses for the Board’s partners.

Tony brings significant experience managing research and providing guidance on a wide range of economic issues. Prior to joining the Board, he served as the Executive Director at the Labour Market Information Council (LMIC), building on his previous work as LMIC’s founding Director of Research, Data and Analytics. While in the risk department at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Tony led the development of housing price and macroeconomic forecasts used in stress testing. He analyzed the economic impacts of climate change and the US pension and retirement system at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, and the economic policy and geopolitical analysis affecting member countries while at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Andrew Sharpe is founder and Executive Director of the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS). Established in 1995, CSLS is a national, independent, non-profit research organization. Its main objectives are to study trends and determinants of productivity, living standards and economic well-being and to develop policy recommendations to improve the lives of Canadians. He has held a variety of earlier positions, including Head of Research at the Canadian Labour Market and Productivity Centre and Chief, Business Sector Analysis at the Department of Finance. He holds a M.A. and Ph.D in economics from McGill University, a maitrise in urban geography from the Université de Paris-Sorbonne, and a B.A. from the University of Toronto. He is also founder and Editor of the International Productivity Monitor and Executive Director of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth, an international research association dedicated to the advancement of knowledge relating to income and wealth.

In this episode, we delve into the minds of CEOs, exploring their concerns and insights as revealed in the 25th edition of the C-Suite survey conducted by The Conference Board. Our guests, Dana Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference Board and Pedro Antunes, Chief Economist, The Conference Board of Canada provide a comprehensive analysis of the survey results, shedding light on the external and internal risks preoccupying global, US, and Canadian business leaders.

About our guests:

Pedro Antunes is the Chief Economist and primary spokesperson at The Conference Board of Canada. He provides insights and general direction for the Board’s economic products, including reports and economic indicators that relate to Canada and its regions and sectors. Pedro provides media interviews in English and French as well as expert testimony before parliamentary and senate committees. He is widely sought for speaking engagements and presentations to industry leaders and decision-makers on a broad range of issues and topics that impact Canadians.

Dana M Peterson is the Chief Economist and Leader of the Economy, Strategy & Finance Center at The Conference Board. Prior to this, she served as a North America Economist and later as a Global Economist at Citi, the world’s largest investment bank. Her wealth of experience extends to the public sector, having also worked at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.

Additional resources:
C-Suite Outlook 2024: Leading for Tomorrow
https://www.conference-board.org/publications/C-Suite-Outlook-2024-leading-for-tomorrow

https://www.conferenceboard.ca/focus-areas/canadian-economics/ 

In this final episode of 2023, we invite two leading economists to explore key issues facing the Canadian economy. We delve into how the world of work is evolving and consider whether Canada might be lagging behind other nations that are more readily adapting to the future of work. Additionally, we examine the increasing role of industrial policies as a strategy for governments to influence various aspects of the economy, ranging from supply chains to environmental performance.
We also discuss the challenges Canada and Canadians are confronting as we enter 2024.

About our guests:

Pedro Antunes is the Chief Economist and primary spokesperson at The Conference Board of Canada. He provides insights and general direction for the Board’s economic products, including reports and economic indicators that relate to Canada and its regions and sectors. Pedro provides media interviews in English and French as well as expert testimony before parliamentary and senate committees. He is widely sought for speaking engagements and presentations to industry leaders and decision-makers on a broad range of issues and topics that impact Canadians.

Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of the  podcast ‘Work and the Future’.

Additional resources:

https://www.conferenceboard.ca/focus-areas/canadian-economics/

http://www.relentlesseconomics.com

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/a-podcast-about-work-the-future-and-how-they-will-go-together/id1515835849

Over the past months, various players have come out to point a finger at the role immigration is playing in a long list of what ails our country.  
From inflation, to housing affordability, to struggling post-secondary institutions, new Canadians have become an easy target.  Our guests Pedro Antunes, Chief Economist at the Conference Board and Kathryn Dennler, Senior Researcher in the Conference Board’s  Immigration Knowledge Area to shed some light on the realities of Canada’s immigration system. 

They talk about how Canada's record numbers of new Canadians is impacting our economy.  They discuss Conference Board of Canada research that highlights how immigration can be an effective tool in helping to reduce the housing affordability crisis.

About our guests:

Pedro Antunes is the Chief Economist and primary spokesperson at The Conference Board of Canada. He provides insights and general direction for the Board’s economic products, including reports and economic indicators that relate to Canada and its regions and sectors. Pedro provides media interviews in English and French as well as expert testimony before parliamentary and senate committees. He is widely sought for speaking engagements and presentations to industry leaders and decision-makers on a broad range of issues and topics that impact Canadians.

Kathryn Dennler joined the Immigration Knowledge Area at The Conference Board of Canada in March 2021. Her research examines Canada’s immigration and settlement policies and their impacts on newcomers. Kathryn has worked on immigration as a researcher, educator, and service provider for over fifteen years and across five countries. Kathryn holds a PhD in Geography from York University, Canada.

Read more:

Work in Progress: How Immigration Can Address Labour Shortages in Residential Construction
https://www.conferenceboard.ca/product/work-in-progress/

The Leaky Bucket: A Study of Immigrant Retention Trends in Canada

https://www.conferenceboard.ca/product/the-leaky-bucket/

Doomsday scenarios are the currency of the day when it comes to artificial intelligence’s impact on the jobs market.  But technologists aren’t always that great at economic forecasting. To help us sort through the hype, we’re joined this episode by Mike Burt, Vice-President at the Conference Board of Canada and Benjamin F. Jones, Professor of Strategy at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois. 
Mike and Ben share their assessments of how artificial intelligence is impacting jobs—drawing a key distinction between whole jobs and the various tasks that make up a job.  You’ll hear why the promise of this new technology represents a sea change in the way that economists have thought about the risks from job automation.  You’ll hear what fears they think are real and whether they are optimistic that new technologies will help to address persistent challenges like Canada’s underperforming innovation sector or broader economic inequality.

About our guests:

Michael Burt is a Vice President at The Conference Board of Canada and leads our Education & Skills and Economic Forecasting knowledge areas. He is also the executive lead for the work CBoC does with the Future Skills Centre. In his role, Michael oversees the convening and research activities of these different areas. Michael has more than 20 years of experience conducting and leading research activities.

An economist by training, Professor Benjamin F. Jones studies the sources of economic growth in advanced economies, with an emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship, and scientific progress.  He also studies global economic development, including the roles of education, climate, and national leadership in explaining the wealth and poverty of nations.  His research has appeared in journals such as Science, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the American Economic Review, and has been profiled in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and The New Yorker.

A former Rhodes Scholar, Professor Jones has served as the senior economist for macroeconomics for the White House Council of Economic Advisers and in the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  Professor Jones is a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he co-directs the Innovation Policy Working Group, a senior fellow of the Institute for Progress, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Additional information:
www.conferenceboard.ca