In several recent newspaper and journal articles I read that the No. 1 long term challenge for the Canadian economy is population aging. That is going to drive two very important policy requirements. One is the need for improving productivity growth in a sustained way so we can maintain living standards. In this regard there are over 1000,000 Nova Scotians who need an outright improvement in their quality of living. The second is the need for fiscal adjustment. As baby boomers age and become infirm, there will be increasing demands on our health-care system and increasing demands for elderly benefits and this will lead to both the federal and provincial governments to make some significant financial adjustments.
Nova Scotia is entering a period of transition and transitions are never easy. There will be fundamental changes in the economy and there is an under supply of skilled labour, then that smaller labour pool will need to be more flexible as their jobs change or disappear in the blink of an eye. Our province has a number of sustainable competitive advantages, but also an equal if not greater number of competitive threats. Our track record for change is not great.
It will be incumbent upon government to be a catalyst in developing a new economy-new work and the required talent pool. The recent economic downturn and the events that led up to it have accelerated a fundamental shift in the economy that is changing the very nature of industries and the way business will be done. Even without these developments the required skills that technology has produced, were enough to create a gap between what skills are needed by business and what training is provided by the education system. In one sense, technology has created a demand for very specialized skills that need to be constantly updated. On the other hand, the base level of skills required to hold even the most basic, entry level jobs have increased to such a degree that literacy and numeracy are essential. The ability to use computers is a given.
While Nova Scotia can boast about one of the highest rates of attendance in post secondary institutions this is not the full picture. We also have a significant number of people who have not finished high school and equally alarming number who are not functionally literate. Many of the jobs that were suited to this level of education and training will be victims of a changing global economy. Jobs that are not eliminated will be under pressure to adapt to the modern technology. This means that people and companies are going to have to embrace continuing education and life long learning in order to both attract and retain skilled people and to remain competitive.
It is unlikely that our birth rate will increase, in fact the opposite trend is well established. Immigration holds promise, but a number of new initiatives will be critical to success. I think we need to increase the participation rate among visible minorities, women, the disabled and older workers. In essence what we will need is a ‘people strategy’. While government must play a lead role, it will be service organizations, as well as individuals that will deliver on any plan. Employers, and particularly the small and medium sized business employers will need to be part of the ‘people strategy’. This is why it is difficult to understand the move by the NDP to dismiss the CFIB-Canadian Federation of Independent Business in shaping the provincial budget and policies that can make a positive difference to the labor market.
The role of government is to bring CFIB, People Worx, Adult Literacy Centers, Community Inc., Continuing Education and diverse work groups together, in order to forge a ‘work force strategy’. This is a report card issue for the NDP government, because they must lead in fitting the pieces together to make our province a model 21st century economy and meet the population aging challenge.
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