The Ontario Economic Summit was a huge success again this year with over 150 delegates in attendance and a wide array of high profile speakers and guests.

OES presenters have been captured on film speaking to issues of importance to Ontario’s economic future, such as:

• Adaptation
• The Double Dip Recession
• Sustainability in Health Care and Transportation
• Innovation

and much more. These videos can be found at http://occ-oes.com/videos-2010.

The 2010 OES brought together the best and the brightest from the private and public sectors to discuss timely issues impacting Ontario today – and tomorrow.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce was, once again, proud to host OES, a platform for dialogue where great minds from across the province, country and world come together in a non-partisan venue to discuss Ontario’s economic future.

This year’s speakers included, Hamish McRae, Associate Editor of The Independent and Europe’s leading futurist; Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne; Leader of the Official Opposition, Tim Hudak; Leader of the New Democratic Party of Ontario, Andrea Horwath; and Glen Hodgson, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist with the Conference Board of Canada.

The keynote speech, delivered by David Rosenberg, Chief Economist and Strategist for Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. was witty and informative. Rosenberg managed to entertain the crowd with self-directed humour and humbleness while addressing the serious economic challenges facing both Canada and the United States.

Highlights from the session included:

• Rosenberg sharing with the crowd Bob Farrell’s “10 Market Rules to Remember.” Farrell, the former Chief Stock Market  analyst for Merrill Lynch and Company was credited by Rosenberg as a great influence in his success and knowledge in the industry.
• Rosenberg joked that Canadians cannot seem to agree on two aspects; the Canadian dollar or hockey teams. Just as Canadians disagree avidly on the best Canadian hockey team, we cannot, as Rosenberg pointed out, seem to make up our minds as to when the Canadian dollar is at its most satisfactory level. Canadians either see the dollar as too high or too low, making it difficult to find common ground
• Canada, despite facing its own economic challenges, is in a better position than the United States. Investors are more interested in investing in our country as Rosenberg stated the Canadian dollar is expected to continue appreciating which is only beneficial as profits can be gained.

Rosenberg concluded that Canada is in a better economic position than the United States as global investors see Canada as a safe and stable place to invest.

Written by: Elizabeth Morris and Milica Petkovic

Rudy van Zijp, General Secretary of Actal, a Dutch Advisory Board of Administrative Burden, opened Tuesday’s Smart Regulation presentation with a bold statement: “We all suffer from heavy regulation.” Van Zijp continued by sharing with delegates the European Union Action Program Timeline. His expertise surrounding regulation issues provided an excellent introduction to the panel discussion.

The Smarter Regulation panel discussion centered on “Smart” and “Dumb” regulations and the importance of determining what does and does not work. Also discussed was the necessity for the business community to get involved with all levels of government to ensure a better regulatory process. The Honourable John Wilkinson, Minister of the Environment, made the connection between innovation and regulation, and suggested that “we need to think about how to make regulation smarter, how to innovate.”

Ray Tanguay, Chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc., concluded the afternoon session by highlighting some of the key themes that had emerged out of the day and also recognized the significance of communication when he discussed the importance of building relationships between academia, government and business.

The morning panel discussion looked at the long term needs of securing a creative and talented workforce. Kirk Dudtschak, Senior Vice- President of RBC Royal Bank boldly stated “War for talent is here now because we are all searching for the best and brightest to help drive our business”. A collaborative effort of labour, academia, business and government is necessary for a sustainable economy.

IBM Canada utilizes this age of graduates, taking on many interns and hiring new talent. Patrick Horgan, Vice-President of IBM Canada stated that, “The 21st century workforce is about changing the game.” Inevitably, in hiring educated and skilled individuals, this can create “smarter cities and a world-class economy.”

One major challenge of creating a world-class economy, recognized by Horgan, is obtaining critical skills. This involves reversing the trend in the low number of new graduates in core disciplines (science and engineering).  The struggle with family incomes and the incapability to send students to post-secondary institutes is recognized by Patrick (Sid) Ryan, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour. He noted that there should be a “heavy investment in post-secondary education by lowering tuition fees, which allows access to all students in all income levels.”

Institutions realize that it is important to uphold a strong brand image to attract new talent, however strong emphasis was put on the importance of maintaining relationships. Businesses must develop partnerships with post-secondary institutions in order to guarantee the top performers.

Written by: Katie Laviolette and Stephanie Porter

The Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Transportation discussed culture shifts and challenges facing Ontario’s transportation infrastructure while speaking to OES delegates. The transportation industry is working hard to generate innovative policies and plans that not only uphold key values such as safety, but also address the changing needs of the public.

Wynne focused on three key cultural shifts:

• The new economy: Ontario is an “export-driven economy” which relies heavily on the transportation of exports and imports more so than in the past. This is extremely important to Ontario’s transportation infrastructure because 70 percent of Canada’s imports and exports travel through the Ontario/ U.S. border.  It is vital that the transportation infrastructure meets the needs of today’s new economy.
• New focus on the environment: There is an increasing desire to consider the environment when implementing plans and policies. Effort is being made to develop and encourage sustainable models of transport, including electric cars. Wynne described an ambitious goal of having 1 in every 20 cars on the road be electric by 2020. Rebates have already been put into place in order to generate more incentives for the public to make this shift to hybrid vehicles.
• Continued pursuit of safety: Safety has long been a key goal and continues to rank high in terms of importance within the transportation industry. New policies on acceptable blood alcohol levels and the move to deter people from using cell phones and other electronic devices while driving have already been put into effect.

These new policies not only reflect the transportation industry’s desire to stay on top of cultural shifts, but also a need to engage the public, as well as the government. As Wynne stated, the “government is part of the solution but not the whole solution,” an idea that has been expressed throughout the day.

Tomorrow’s keynote address will focus on changes to the global economy and what this means for Ontario.

Written by: Elizabeth Morris and Milica Petkovic