Abstract:
Canada needs to step up its capacity to compete on the global science and innovation commons. The numbers and types of skilled workers required for this transformation have been conspicuously absent from discourse. In sectors like aerospace, electrification, healthcare and AI, existing talent is scarce and future availability is uncertain. Domestic talent alone cannot meet demand, yet Canada lacks a roadmap to access global talent essential for social and economic aspirations. This panel will discuss the perils and pitfalls of the status quo and point to new initiatives required to revitalize the talent pipeline for science and innovation in Canada.

Summary of Conversations

Canada has an accelerating human capital shortfall in science, technology, and innovation (STI). This is evidenced by a national talent gap that grew from 10% to 77% between 2010 and 2024, coupled with projected workforce crises by 2035—including a 50% deficit in family practitioners and the need for hundreds of thousands of new hires in sectors such as aerospace, energy, and electric mobility. Strengthening Canada’s STI talent requires not only a greater reservoir of persons with in-depth technical skills but also complementary expertise in regulation, IP strategy, and risk financing to foster successful commercialization. Replenishing the talent reservoir requires concerted efforts around discrete priorities ranging from Indigenous well-being to sustainable energy. As part of a national strategy on STI, there is consensus on the urgent need for an explicit focus on talent with time-bound targets that informs and aligns the efforts of education institutions, funders, employers and immigration policies.

Take Away Messages/Current Status of Challenges

• Escalating STI Talent Gap: The country’s innovation performance is declining due in large part to a lack of skills, with the national STI talent gap having grown dramatically from 20% in 2010 to 77% in 2024, signaling a persistent systemic failure in meeting talent demands.
• Sector-Specific Workforce Shortfalls: Critical economic sectors face quantifiable, massive talent deficits, such as a projected 50% shortfall in family practitioners and the need for over 400,000 new workers in electric mobility and sustainability by 2035.
• Restrictive Policy and Reputation Damage: Recent federal and provincial policies regarding international students have created a severe bottleneck for talent inflow, damaging the country’s global reputation and preventing funded research projects from advancing due to a lack of graduate-level personnel.
• The Problem of Brain Drain: Highly skilled domestic talent, including graduate students and entrepreneurs, are actively being lost to other countries in a “greener pastures” effect, indicating a fundamental failure in retention strategies.
• Underutilization of Domestic Human Capital: There is an ongoing challenge in accessing and supporting untapped domestic talent pools, most notably Indigenous populations and communities in rural and remote northern regions.
• Mismatched Skills and Outdated Curricula: Post-secondary education systems are criticized for an absence of targeted talent outcomes with limited access and high dropout rates especially amongst population groups with greatest needs.  They lack agility, offering curricula that are too rigid, do not incorporate hands-on experience, and fail to teach in-demand skills like project management and entrepreneurship.
• Lack of Holistic Talent Planning: An over-focus on technical talent neglects other types of talent —including social sciences, humanities, entrepreneurial skills, financing and regulatory expertise—which are necessary to move innovations from the lab to markets and to attract and retain top notch talent in the setting of global competition.

Recommendations/Next Steps

Building on the initial investments for strengthening talent announced in the federal budget 2025, a further multi-stakeholder process convened possibly by the Advisory Council on Science and Innovation announced in 2024, should consider the following recommendations to inform the next federal budget.

• Establish a Long-Term National Talent Strategy: Develop a coherent, whole-of-country Science, Technology, and Innovation strategy with a 20-year horizon that transcends electoral cycles with time-bound targets to establish Canada as a preferred destination for top talent development, employment and career development.
• Coordinate Multi-Level Governance: Implement clear governance structures with defined responsibilities across federal, provincial, territorial, Indigenous and other institutional partners to create a cohesive, accountable, and systemic approach to talent development.
• Modernize Educational Delivery and Content: Reform post-secondary education by adopting dynamic, 21st-century-adapted teaching methods, including shorter modules, case-based learning, and mandatory entrepreneurship training at the undergraduate level.
• Align and Differentiate Immigration Policy: Decouple international student policies from broader economic immigrant and refugee narratives to better attract highly skilled global talent and repair the country’s damaged international reputation.
• Mandate Employer-Driven Curricula Input: Require private sector, startup, research funders and government employers to collaborate directly with educational institutions to define and integrate in-demand professional skills, such as project management, into curricula.
• Invest in Domestic Talent Activation: Deploy targeted strategies to foster talent in underrepresented communities, including investing in the public school system to prepare children for STI careers and focused initiatives for women in science and engineering.
• Leverage Philanthropy and Financial Incentives: Explore the strategic role of philanthropy and increase the competitiveness of salaries and stipends for researchers and graduate students to enhance both global attraction and domestic talent retention.
• Prioritize Data and Workforce Foresight: Commit to long-term investment in data collection and analysis to anticipate future workforce needs across sectors and geographies, enabling proactive and targeted training, talent development, and industrial planning.