{"id":413046,"date":"2020-12-15T15:15:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T20:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/?p=413046"},"modified":"2020-12-15T15:15:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T20:15:53","slug":"canada-must-fight-to-retain-talent-after-biden-enters-white-house-macklem-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/news\/research-and-markets\/canada-must-fight-to-retain-talent-after-biden-enters-white-house-macklem-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada must fight to retain talent after Biden enters White House, Macklem says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canadian governments must be ready to fight a potential brain drain south of the border in the face of a new U.S. administration, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Protectionist policies and attitudes stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump have helped make Canada a more attractive landing spot for global talent over the past four years.<\/p>\n<p>But the advantage for international students and workers is likely to disappear as Trump exits the White House next month, Macklem said in a speech to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade<\/p>\n<p>He says being welcoming to newcomers can help boost the economy and increase exports in goods and services needed for a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Canadian schools and companies may have to fight harder to attract and retain talent after Joe Biden is sworn in as president.<\/p>\n<p>But Macklem warns that fighting for talent isn’t enough on its own to create a sustainable recovery, noting that governments must also invest in infrastructure and remove internal trade barriers to help exports recover.<\/p>\n<p>He says federal and provincial governments have co-operated often through the pandemic, suggesting it could finally lead to an end on inter-provincial trade hurdles that stymy the movement of goods, services and professionals.<\/p>\n<p>Government infrastructure spending should focus on trade-enhancing infrastructure so exporters know there is a way to easily get their products to market, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Macklem notes he met last month with leaders from several logistics companies who shared their concerns about bottlenecks, particularly at ports.<\/p>\n<p>The recovery so far has seen the country recoup just over 80% of the three million jobs lost during spring shutdowns and output is climbing closer to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n<p>Macklem says much of that rebound is being fueled by household spending, but the country will need to see a rise in exports and business investment if the recovery is to be sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>The path exports take will rest on global forces, Macklem says, including whether international co-operation on vaccines and distribution break through protectionist policies.<\/p>\n<p>“Obviously, we all hope that real life turns out closer to the optimistic scenario than the pessimistic. But hope is not a strategy,” reads the text of Macklem’s speech.<\/p>\n<p>“We need to think strategically to increase the odds of a strong trade recovery.”<\/p>\n<p>The last time Canada climbed out of a recession following the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Macklem was the second-in-command at the central bank.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Canada’s recession was neither as long nor as deep as other countries, domestic exports took a sharper dive. As Macklem noted in his speech, global exports fell less than 20% at the time, while Canadian exports dropped by close to 30%.<\/p>\n<p>The reason was a combination of weak foreign demand, particularly from our biggest trading partner in the United States, Canada’s reliance on the U.S. and other slow-growth markets instead of emerging economies largely, and a lack of competitiveness.<\/p>\n<p>But while the period before that crisis was relatively positive for trade, Macklem says the same can’t be said this time around, pointing to trade disputes started by Trump.<\/p>\n<p>As well, Canada’s trade in services, such as tourism, haven’t recovered as well as goods such as automobiles, even though service exports had been growing faster than goods.<\/p>\n<p>What’s needed is for companies to think about what products are in demand in fast-growing markets, Macklem says. He pointed in his speech to digital services like online education and e-commerce, or applying new technology to traditional sectors.<\/p>\n<p>He also says the export potential for green technology is high given global concerns about climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Protectionist policies and attitudes toward U.S. President Donald Trump helped Canada land global talent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143134,"featured_media":397529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2313,2312],"tags":[57655,3859,3807],"yst_prominent_words":[5847,74241,35766,27442,22390,11913,11508,9927,9119,7387,7057,6089,18,5074,5054,4032,2142,2116,1695,1384],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413049,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413046\/revisions\/413049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413046"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=413046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}