Place, People and Prosperity: Supporting Communities Through Change

A breakfast panel on what a place-based approach to Canada’s industrial policy could look like Canada has big ambitions for its economic future. The country is looking to diversify its trade, build major projects fast, secure critical supply chains, capture opportunities in artificial intelligence, and expand its defence industrial capacity. Yet the opportunities—and risks—that come with these ambitions affect communities across the country differently. Researchers for the IRPP’s Community Transformations Project spent the past several years examining how major economic transformations and policy shifts can affect communities across the country and how governments can support them. As new research from the project argues, place-neutral policy is not necessarily neutral in effect: investment and support can disproportionately flow toward regions that already have stronger industrial ecosystems, research institutions and access to capital. On October 29, join us for a breakfast panel on what a place-based approach to Canada’s industrial policy could look like and what governments can learn from the people and communities navigating economic transformation firsthand. The discussion will explore what we have learned about the barriers communities face, the assets they have and how place-based approaches can help them capture new economic opportunities. It will consider what effective public policy could look like on the ground as communities navigate major shifts in Canada’s trade relationships and investment landscape. The event will also mark the release of the fourth policy brief from the IRPP’s Community Transformations Project on the role of place-based industrial policy in the context of Canada’s bold economic ambitions. The panel features Gordon More, executive director of the Southeast Techhub in Saskatchewan; Candice Wilson, independent consultant and environmental leader from the Haisla Nation; and Tyler Mattheis, director of economic development at the Cape Breton Partnership. The event will be moderated by Jennifer Ditchburn, president and CEO of the IRPP.