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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - APRIL 2014
GOVERNOR GENERAL
communicate.
Thirdly, I think we in Canada are
recognizing that one has to work smart
to be able to be competitive in a world
where there are many more suppliers
and everybody is looking for the com-
petitive advantage. The fourth change
is that the business community has a
broader view than the world I recall
when I was a student. Business is more
than return for shareholders now. It’s
about responsibility to stakeholders,
the community, etc.
How can Canada become more
competitive on the world stage?
The single most important step is
developing our talent base. We’re now
drawing talent from 100 per cent of the
population—including women, and all
segments of the population—and then
plugging that talent into the workforce
and working smarter. Better innova-
tion and better technology—these are
important aspects to our ability to
compete.
We need to think globally and
think smartly and we need to build
that mentality into our young people.
In addition, we are so fortunate that
our country is the most immigrant-
friendly in the world. That aspect is
hugely important to us. It’s a wonder-
ful trade advantage to have the diver-
sity that we have.
How can we be more productive
within our own borders?
We have still far too many barri-
ers for the flow of goods and services
and professionals across borders in this
country—we must work hard to break
these down. The barriers in NAFTA
and CETA are far less than those even
within our own country across prov-
inces: that’s not a good thing.
One positive is that education is
largely a provincial responsibility and
provinces are really doing a good job
in educating Canadians. Children ex-
ceed the education level of their par-
ents according to studies and this is a
“
We have still
far too many
barriers for the
flow of goods
and services
and profes-
sionals across
borders in this
country—we
must work
hard to break
these down.”
