We are still operating a credentialing system optimized for the 1980s economy. We should reimagine policy, and train workers for the Canadian labour market in their home countries before they emigrate.
Connecting the European Union and the Indo-Pacific nations would put Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call for middle powers to work together into action.
Other advanced economies facing the same demographic pressures have begun to fundamentally rethink how they train, attract, and integrate skilled workers, and Canada has not kept pace.
A bolder Canada would act in its own interests, building coalitions of middle powers in Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia that can navigate a multipolar world on their terms.
Africa can be part of the solution to domestic challenges we face, and the need to diversify our interests in the continent beyond the minerals and mining sector.